Spontaneous flora of the old town of Goslar

The flora of the city of Goslar was investigated over 20 years as complete as possible. Public areas have been mapped in 10 selected years. During these investigations 205 spontaneous growing species have been documented. The main growing places are pavements and walls named ‘urban hard surfaces’ by the recent literature of urban ecology. The registered species are mainly very common, short-lived and/or growth-restricted. Goslar is a model of a widely maintained city, the built volumes of which are alive till today without large destroys and changes. This is the reason for the high amount of indigenous species (61,65%) and at the same time for the low number of neophytes (20,87%). Wild running ornamental plants and ornamental bushes are the main part of the neophytes (34 species). Numerous neophytes still spreading in larger cities are still missing in the city of Gosla