Abstract: An investigation of plant communities was conducted in Shanghai Green Belt and 177 community plots were surveyed. The flora of vascular plant in the study area consisted of 226 species and varieties, 184 genera and 87 families. But a few species dominated the whole belt, the ratio of native trees being only 25%. There were 67 community types, which were divided into 7 vegetation types, most of them were deciduous broad-leaved forest and evergreen broad-leaved forest; however, few of them were of zonal vegetation types. The species diversity of these communities was low. The result showed that the average number of species in the tree layer was 1.68, and in that the shrub layer was 0.92. The community structure was simple, featured as a dumbbell: sparse in the middle and dense on both sides, and generally in the model of “tree with natural herb”. Most of trees are in poor growth.

Key words: urban forest, Shanghai Green Belt, community structure, plant diversity