Population distribution and structure characteristics of village roadside forest in Fujian Province, eastern China

The stratified sampling method was adopted to investigate the roadside forest of 88 villages in Fujian Province, southwestern China. The main results showed that floristic composition was richer on village roadside forest, including 79 species, belonging to 64 genera in 41 families. The order of floristic species number was coastal type village flat type villagehill type villagemountainous type village. The floristic number of mountainous type village was the smallest, and those of hill type village, flat type village and coastal type village were relatively richer. The dominant plants were mainly composed of ornamental arbor, such as Schima superba, Phoebe zhennan, Michelia figo，Elaeocarpus sylvestris，Sabina chinensis，Liquidambar formosana，Michelia chapensis，Lagerstroemia indica，Dimocarpus longgana，Ficus microcarpa，Dalbergia odorifera，Populus euramevicana，Cinnamomum camphora，Cinnamomum japonicum，Ficus benjamina,etc. The roadide forest distributed mainly in main road, followed in pathway, and the village road was less. The distribution characteristics of village roadside forest were that unilateral distribution was more and bilateral distribution was less, the whole roads distribution was more and scatter distribution was less. Most distribution length was less than 50 meters, followed by more than 200 meters, and 50 to 200 meters was the least. Most of the arbors were small diameter, and the average height was less than 5 meters. The health status of roadside forest was poor and the proportion of unhealthy plants was up to 35.57%.