• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.4
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• pp.579-591
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• 2012

Berchemia berchemiaefolia is a rare and endangered species and important as a honey resource. The purposes of this study were to investigate physical environmental factors and the population and community structure of Berchemia berchemiaefolia stands at Mt. Gunja in Sogrisan National Park in Chungcheongbuk-do. The B. berchemiaefolia stands belonged to deciduous forests in mid-temperate zone and were $5{\sim}25^{\circ}$ in slope, 30~90% in rock ratio, and 6.37 in soil pH. They had 656 trees within the area of 36 ha and their average density was 18.2 trees per ha. The trees within the stands were 11.8 m in tree height, 22.6 cm in DBH and 56 years old. The number of branched stems was the maximum 8 and 32.9% of the trees were branched. B. berchemiaefolia trees over 12 cm diameter occupied 89.9%, but young B. berchemiaefolia did only 11%. The structure of B. berchemiaefolia stands were classified into three groups as Acer pseudo-sieboldianum & A. mono community group, A. pseudo-sieboldianum & Quercus aliena community group, and B. berchemiaefolia & Quercus serata community group. The mean importance value of B. berchemiaefolia was 10.9%, while species diversity of the community ranged 0.77~1.31 and interspecific competition ranged 0.78~0.94. The dominance of the community ranged of 0.07~0.29 and the evenness ranged 0.71~0.93. Although B. berchemiaefolia was dominant in the habitat, but the species was already in natural successional stage to Cornus controversa or Ulmus davidiana var. japonica.