Classification of arboreal taxa for landscaping in Central Russia based on leaf coloristics

Abstract

Color affects the psychological and physiological state of a person and is one of the powerful factors that form a comfortable visual environment. Currently, color-leaved taxa are actively offered by nurseries and are used in landscaping. At the same time, the color characteristics of taxa are very diverse, are quite subjective, which makes their selection and application difficult. The purpose of the work is to analyze and classify the modern varietal variety of the wood assortment for the middle part of Russia by the color of ripened leaf blades. The analysis was carried out according to descriptions and photographs presented in information sources and catalogues of nurseries. It has been established that the modern coloristic diversity of arboreal taxa is great, there are discrepancies in the description of foliage color, there is no classification. The classification of the colorist of taxa by visual perception, convenient from a practical point of view, has been developed, reduced to the main color groups: green, blue (silver), whitish, whitish-pink, yellow, purple. The peculiarity is that variegated taxa are included in these groups in accordance with their color perception: yellow-mottled and yellow–bordered taxa are classified as yellow, taxa with white inclusions and fringing are whitish, and so on. It can be recommended to nursery farms to apply the developed classification when selling planting material, landscape firms and gardeners when selecting and composing plant compositions.