Plant landscape characteristics and the impact of village expansion on it in three traditional villages of Guangzhou, southern China

ObjectiveWith the continuous population growth and the rapid development of urbanization, many traditional villages have begun to expand outward. How to continue the plant landscape features of traditional rural in this process has become a problem need to be solved.

MethodIn order to explore the impact of village expansion on the plant landscape of traditional village, this paper takes three traditional villages in Guangzhou of southern China as examples to investigate the plant characteristics within the residential area of the villages and compare the differences of plant characteristics between the traditional and expanded area.

Result(1) the green contribution rate of courtyard plant landscape was the biggest both in traditional and expanded area; (2) from the traditional area to the expanded area, plant species became richer, quantity increased and the structure of plant life form tended to be more shrubby; (3) from the traditional area to the expanded area, residents' attention on plant has changed from ecological and edible function to ornamental function; (4) the dominant tree species in the traditional area were geomantic omen species, e.g., Ficus microcarpa, Bombax malabaricum, etc; and edible fruit trees, e.g., Dimocarpus longan, Clausena lansium, Artocarpus heterophyllus, etc; and ecological species, e.g., Chukrasia tabularis and Broussonetia papyifera, Dendrocalamopsis oldhami, etc. The dominant tree species in the expanded area were geomantic omen species, e.g., Ficus microcarpa; and edible ecological species fruit trees, e.g., Dimocarpus longan, Clausena lansium, and Psidium guajava, etc; and ornamental plants, e.g., Lagerstroemia indica, Plumeria rubra, and ecological species, e.g., Terminalia neotaliala, Cinnamomum camphora, Dendrocalamopsis oldhami, etc. The overall plant landscape had changed from natural and fruitful style to ornamental and urbanizational style; (5) from the traditional area to the expanded area, the green contribution rate of geomantic omen species and riverside plants reduced greatly; (6) the proportion of arbor has positive effects on the green biomass of the traditional and expanded area. In traditional area, the more the ecological and edible plants was, the greater the contribution rate of the plant landscape type was. In the expanded area, the more the ecological plants was, the greater the contribution rate of the plant landscape type was.

ConclusionThe change of plant landscape and its impacting factors in the expanded village were analyzed, and the suggestion of plant landscape construction of traditional villages in this process was proposed.