Cascades’ ‘healing power’

Published on: Sunday, January 31, 2021

By: Eskay Ong

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UNDER normal circumstances, all plants are set on the ground or in some other growing medium in some form of container to grow up, get big and achieve some spread and perhaps to procreate.

To see these living things growing taller and sideways, putting on bulk and weight, ballooning up and continuing to procreate is nothing very spectacular as it is a normal phenomenon. Within the same context, it is normal to see ripe mangoes dropping down from the tree instead of dropping up.

Therefore, when there are plants that can grow downwards, as well as upwards, then it must surely be something that is worth looking at. It does not matter so much that the plant is growing upwards in its push for some space or light, but if it is growing downwards, then there must be some juicy plum somewhere for it to push forward in a downward direction.

This plum magnetic pull often occurs when multiple vines of creepers and climbers especially the twiners, winders and clingers, gather in great numbers to pour down in a unilateral downwards direction in what is known as a cascade effect. When in full forward and downward mode, it can smother everything in its path and nothing can stand in its way, except for a few working bulldozers or excavators.

In nature, cascades can grow everywhere in particular those places that have experienced serious landslides, soil erosion or the washing away of river banks and hillsides. Within built-up or violated environment, they occur usually after some aggressive earthworks where the soil surface have been pillaged and left barren and exposed after having been plundered, raped and converted into moonscapes.

In a way, cascades expose the healing power of nature to cover the naked or exposed soil surfaces which therefore mitigates against further damage that may arise from future rainfall, run-offs or man-made destructions. It is amazing how fast nature can reclaim such lands as can often be seen in disturbed, cleared or abandoned lands, and it is amazing too to look at how nature sets in place a system of orderly succession of greenscapes starting from the lowest level of plants to the tall trees.

Within the scheme of natural succession, cascades play no small part in providing surface cover and other greens over the landscape. Twiners, winders and clingers may try to wriggle their way up, and sometimes, down too, but cascades invariably starts from somewhere higher up. It is possible they sometimes start their downward journey from tree tops as a result of seedlings germinated from bird droppings that contained some undigested seeds.

Cascades In Greeneries

Many varieties of cascades can be found in natural settings such as can be found in belukars, jungles and their fringes, hill slopes, untended or disturbed lands. These locations provide them the right conditions for them to grow profusely from where they may swamp over many other kinds of vegetation and structures.

The presence of such kinds of cascades are unintentional as their growth and development are unaided by human endeavour. Invariably, they are almost always found growing at their own pace in outdoor situations as untended cascades are always unwelcome indoors.

Sometimes, cascades are intentionally created to fulfil some purpose such as to cover up some badly exposed or eroded soil surface on hill slopes. In certain construction projects such as commercial or condominium buildings, cascades are intentionally grown to provide a green cover to soften up the harsh image of concrete, steel and glass.

Also, civil engineering projects that involve hill cutting most likely require the construction of retaining walls, gabion walls, or some shotcreting or gunitting works for the protection of the slope especially if the soil structure is unstable or loose. On the top of the wall, or behind it, comes the ground covers or creepers that are usually comprised of three or four varieties of leguminous plants.

These can spread extremely fast, sending runners all over the place and very quickly taking over and covering up slope surfaces which is why they are always used in great quantities in plantations.

It is these rapid and excessive growth that normally spills over and down retaining walls, thus giving the impression that someone is doing extra work for free trying to green and soften up concrete walls. An award of PGDK is therefore not too much to expect from such extra works!

Sometimes, a couple of varieties of tall, deep-rooted grasses that hug the ground in deep embrace are grown to stabilise the soil surface. The grass clump may attain a height of two to three metres while the matted root system may reach a depth of three to four metres. From these, it can be seen that deep roots do help greatly in mitigating against damage to hill slopes.

Under normal circumstances, no consultant or contractor will insist on growing greens to cover the concrete walls unless the terms are stated in the specifications. If the walls turn green, it is just that they are in luck as nature normally will do the job for them. This is because the growth and expansion of creepers will sooner or later spill over the wall and thus envelop it.

Urban Cascades

Many people do not consider the existence of cascades in urban areas a big deal. This is excusable and a non-issue as they may not have the time to laze and look around. It is believed a lot of them do not even realise that cascades are of plant – real plant – materials, and not plastics, that are made to stream down in one or more layers.

The worst is, some don’t even accept that cascades can be made to yield beneficial uses. For example, in many urban areas, there are usually more concrete than greens, which is a problem facing city planners when handling urban greening.

It is uncertain how many experts there are out there with the hands-on experience when it comes to facing the question of allowing and keeping naturally developed cascades, removing or eradicating them, or putting them to good use by creating and cultivating more of them to meet the needs of particular locations within city boundaries.

This means there are man-made and naturally-grown cascades within not only city boundaries, but also in other sites statewide.

The widespread existence of natural cascades is a certainty, and as Sabah is well-blessed with plenty of sunshine, water and fertile land, the opportunity is again available for every able-bodied to go out there to maximise on these widely available natural assets and thus upgrade their economic well-being to the next higher level.

In many urban constructions and built-up environments these days, more and more attention is being paid to not only green them up, but also to aim for the status of green building. This covers not only the use of large quantities and varieties of greeneries, but to also take into consideration the consumption of energy, use of resources such as water, the production of wastes, etc.

In this respect, the reuse and recycling of water especially rain water, is visible everywhere as there are now storm water retention ponds in many new projects. It is the same with solid waste, the procedures of which have been regulated under several government agencies.

The creation of vertical green walls and cascades is also becoming highly visible nowadays especially the newer big buildings. The function is to create a softer and greener view while at the same time, block off a large amount of sunlight from landing on the building.

This effectively cools down the building to varying degrees, with the result that energy consumption becomes much lower. At the end of the day, this should turn out to be a bonus to the building management.

Interior Cascades

The cultivation of cascades and vertical green walls is nowadays becoming a fairly common sight. One of the best examples can be seen at Changi International Airport in Singapore where the interior greenscapes are nothing but praiseworthy.

The fantastic and creative horticulturists were so meticulous when rushed in where angels feared to tread, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In Kota Kinabalu City, there are a number of buildings that have endeavoured to create cascades by the use of several varieties of creeping plants with appreciably good results. The effect should have been better had they touched up a bit here and tweaked a little there.

For the truly interior cascades, not one is visible as yet within the city despite the existence of many large and tall buildings. Perhaps their building designers have never thought about such an idea, or they didn’t have any idea about it at all, or the megabuck allocation they require could be a problem.

Perhaps, future designers or architects should seriously think about creating more value-added features within buildings such as interior cascades or one-of-a-kind interior naturescapes. The result would certainly be a win-win-situation for everybody.