Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the actual vegetation and plant community structure of the urban forest in Kwangju Metropolitan City. Thirty eight plots in the urban forest were set up by the clumped sampling method. The degree of green naturality, 6 that is artifical planting area covered 10.9% in Kwangju Metropolitan City and Pinus densiflora community covered 48.7% of the actual vegetations of urban forest. Canopy height, Diameter of breast height (DBH) and No. of species in urban forest were 13.5m, 21cm and 24 species, respectively. The soil conditions and community structure of the urban forest were differenced by location of urban and suburban area. The plant communities divided into six groups which were Quercus acutissima community, Q. acutissima-Robinia pseudo-acacia community, Pinus rigida Community, P. rigida-P. densiflora community, P. densifrora-Q. acutissima community and Q, serrata-P. densiflora community. Successional series of the urban forest in the surveyed area were proceeding from P. dinsiflora to Quercus species. The species diversity of plant were high in natural plant community but low in artificial plant community. Tree density in the canopy layer varied from 600ea/ha to 2,800ea/ha.
