Application of native wildflower mixtures in agricultural landscapes

The use of native wildflower mixtures, a kind of landscape vegetation planting method that mainly selects native wildflowers and establishes communities via mixed sowing, has become a popular technical measure for agricultural landscape restoration in Europe, America, and elsewhere in recent years. Studies have reported that native wildflower mixtures can improve habitat quality and landscape structure, attract pollinators and natural enemies, and enhance pollination and pest control functions in agricultural landscapes. Moreover, researchers have found that the combination of native wildflowers is an important method for landscape construction. The design of native wildflower mixtures plays an important role in the establishment of planting; therefore, the selections of species, their proportion, and sowing method and layout are important issues that ought to be resolved in the design. Based on a summary of European and American experiences of designing of native wildflower mixtures and biodiversity monitoring, we observed that the nativization, diverse functions, and inclusion of key species play important roles in plant selection. Further, we discussed the detailed techniques for the design, such as the growth cycle, species and seeding quantity, seeding area, and spatial layout, to promote the localization of native wildflower development. Native wildflower mixtures are an important technology for achieving agricultural landscape restoration. In European and American countries, a series of relevant policies have been proposed to promote industrial development and farmers' subsidies. In European countries, numerous legislative and agricultural environmental protection policies have been established to provide farmers with various ecological subsidies to promote their complete participation in the process of local wildflower combination planting. However, in China, there is a lack of cases in which mature local wildflower combinations have been applied. Therefore, it is necessary to completely explore the germplasm resources and evaluate the ecological, cultivation, and landscape characteristics of native wildflower combinations in China to achieve native wildflower combinations. To this end, the present study proposes the realization of the design and promotion of rural wildflower combinations via multidisciplinary cooperation. The government, companies, research institutions, and farmers should all participate in the process of designing rural wildflower combinations and propose market-oriented ecological subsidy policies to promote the same. The application of native wildflower combinations in the field of agricultural landscape restoration could contribute to improving the agricultural ecology in China.