By: Allison Choe
Along with the warm sunshine and brisk showers that come with spring, MHS’s campus also bears the pungent aroma of ornamental pear trees, which grow scattered throughout school. The white blossoms are often described as smelling like rotting fish and bodily fluids, and are infamous among the student population for their unpleasant odor. Despite the rank scent permeating campus every spring, the pear trees have never been replaced. However, the trees’ deficiencies go far beyond just smelling foul — they tend to be invasive, overcrowding and suppressing native species quickly, and have weak branches which are easily snapped in high winds or storms, posing safety hazards for students, staff, and equipment. A suitable replacement could be flowering dogwood trees, which have similar white and pink flowers and colorful fall foliage without the unpleasant smell. Another suitable one is serviceberry trees, which have almost identical flowers but instead bear edible fruit, are wind-resistant and provide shelter and habitat for endangered birds. Yet aside from just the shortcomings of these particular pear trees, the MHS campus could benefit from more drought-tolerant, native, and overall beneficial plants.
By the side of the path near the E building, low-growing rosemary shrubs line the walkways, attracting droves of buzzing honeybees with their aromatic lavender flowers throughout fall, parts of winter, and spring. In a similar vein, brightly colored clusters of lantana blossoms attract golden bumblebees and hummingbirds to the landscaped area outside the L building, their cheerful red, orange, and lilac flowers a sure sign of coming spring. Not only are these plants valuable to pollinators, but also in financial and environmental terms: rosemary hails from the Mediterranean, while lantana grows in drier countries such as Australia, Asia, and Africa, so these species are drought-tolerant, saving the school on water costs.
However, other plants on campus are not quite as suited to xeric conditions: for example, the lush roses near the J building require frequent watering to fulfill their thirsty natures, as does the large patch of grass known as “The Green.” Despite its infrequent use by students, it requires almost constant upkeep to remain trimmed and watered. If not completely replaced by a more useful attraction, changing the kind of grass or ground cover would help cut back on water and labor costs, as well as time needed to maintain it. New breakthroughs in science have created a cultivar called “St. Augustine” grass, which is less thirsty than its predecessors, due to longer root systems that allow it to penetrate compacted soil. Another option is a fescue grass blend, which homeowners, public parks, and universities have been using to cut watering costs in lieu of shorter, more traditional turf grass. Fescue uses around 30% the water that regular turf grass does, does not need fertilizer to stay lush, and needs to be mowed only two or three times a year to stay tidy. Furthermore, its roots emit meta-tyrosine amino acid that kills off competing weeds, saving money on weeding costs and acting as a natural herbicide, which in turn helps prevent toxic runoff from entering the water system and poisoning natural wildlife. By switching the type of grass used on campus, MHS can potentially free up funding to go to other departments that need it.
Tucked in a secluded, sunny patch beside the L building, the school’s garden is fenced off and quiet save for the chirping of birds and rustling wind. California’s temperate weather opens up a host of options for anyone who wants to garden, yet no one ever seems to even step foot in it. Giving the school garden better exposure (for example, having Leadership post or talk about it, or allowing environmental-science classes access to it) would grant students a hands-on experience teaching them how to make healthier dietary choices, provide a means of acquiring community service hours, and even just provide a breath of fresh air at stressful times. The garden plots are already furnished with soil, and only need simple tending to accommodate vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Above all, students and staff alike coming into the 2021-2022 school year will have been cooped up in their homes due to the quarantine brought about by the onset of COVID-19, and simply being in an outdoor space can help reaffirm a sense of reality to those who have lost track of time after many long months. After seeing little more than the red glow of the Netflix screen and Zoom calls for months, students could certainly benefit from the exercise and Vitamin D that working in a garden allows.
Another advantage to refurbishing MHS’s landscape with better plants is that diverse greenery breathes life into a place, making it feel more lived-in and welcoming. Along with native shrubbery and berries come the sounds of birdsong in the trees, sparrows, hummingbirds, and black-eyed juncos nestled in bushes (as opposed to shrill squawking from seagulls at lunch, between classes, and…any time, really.) Some steps towards replacing plants on campus with more beneficial ones would be to replace the star jasmine near the overhangs with honeysuckle or morning glories, which support thirty-six and thirty-nine species respectively. Another would be to remove the “heavenly bamboo” (Nandina domestica) planted on the edges of the front of the school, which despite bearing attractive scarlet fall foliage and berries is invasive and spreads a system of suckers through the ground, killing off other plants around it, and planting varieties of sedges, which support around thirty-six species. Of course, there are arguments to be made against the introduction of more wildlife into school campus, but making parts of school more accessible for native fauna is a small step towards becoming a more environmentally friendly campus.
Apart from just being beneficial to wildlife, plants on campus could be optimized to be less allergy-inducing in humans as well. When allergy season comes, many people come down with runny noses, watery eyes, headaches, and more, thanks to the onslaught of pollen from the blossoming flowers all around. Pollen is inevitably going to make its way into sinuses, but one way to minimize the fallout is by replacing blossoming trees with low/no-pollen varieties. Allergies often make it difficult to concentrate in class, and students around campus would surely be grateful to be less distracted by watering eyes in the middle of an AP Biology final, or the middle of an intense English discussion. One such replacement could be removing the more potent culprits on campus (flowering pears, roses, etc.) and planting trees more known for their foilage, such as ash, birch, or maple trees. A popular substitute famously known for its ornamental leaves is the Japanese maple, which turns a motley range of colors (scarlet, orange, emerald, and even pink) depending on the season. The trade-off that must be made, however, is the high prices that buyers must pay when buying these trees, which are often in the range of hundreds to a thousand dollars (depending on maturity and quality.) A compromise between price, benefits, and maturity must be struck if the school decides to go through with replacing the plants on campus.
With so many options and angles to take when deciding whether to replace or spruce up the existing landscape on school grounds, it will certainly take time, research, and careful planning, but in the event that re-landscaping does come about, the “rotten fish” pear trees will most likely be the highest on the priority list, as they are the most vindicated plants currently on campus. In any event, the concept of having more diverse, beneficial, and less noxious plants on campus is definitely an adequate goal to strive towards.