The Selection,Application And Spatiotemporal Distribution Characteristics Of City Trees And Flowers In China

City trees and flowers are important city cards,highlighting a city’s unique humanities landscape,regional characteristics,and spiritual outlook.The scientific selection of city trees is of great significance to improving the landscape of urban plants,optimizing the urban ecological environment,and promoting the quality and popularity of the city.Through extensive data collection and sorting,this study conducted a comprehensive,in-depth,and systematic analysis of the selection of city trees in 377 cities in China,straightened out and summarized the establishment of Chinese city trees,characteristics of tree species,development history and change factors,etc.Through the analysis of the current situation of city tree establishment in various cities in China,the study found that the scientific nature and diversity in the selection and application of city trees are presented in a multi-dimensional manner,so as to provide reference for the selection of city trees and plant landscape planning in China.Furthermore,the study surveyed public cognition of city trees and city flowers through questionnaire,and put forward several suggestions and countermeasures to the existing problems.The study found:(1)The overall application of city trees and flowers in our country is quite good.At present,70 percent of the cities surveyed have set up city trees,and 74.3 percent have set up city flowers.The provinces with high share are mainly located in central,southeastern and eastern coastal areas.However,there are some problems in the selection process of city trees and city flowers,such as unprofessional official announcement,non-standard selection process and the lack of updating relevant information.(2)The analysis of varieties of city trees’ and flowers’ species showed that among 264 cities that have city trees,their 95 species belong to 69 genera and 33 families,and among 281 cities that have city flowers,their 74 species belong to 52 genera and 28 families.Among the city trees,Cinnamomum camphora,Sophora japonica and Ginkgo have the highest application frequency,and among the city flowers,Rosa chinensis,Rhododendron simsii and Osmanthus have the highest application frequency.The proportion of domestic species is relatively high among the species of city trees and flowers.The majority of city trees are arbor,especially broad-leaved trees,and the majority of city flowers are shrubs,especially deciduous trees.In our country,cities generally take the form of "one city,one tree" and "one city,one flower".Besides,ornamental,ecological,cultural and economic values take major role in city trees’ and flowers’ values.Some cities took unique or national protected species as city trees and flowers.(3)Looking into the development history of the city trees and flowers,the study indicated that the time of official establishment of the city trees and flowers is concentrated between 1982 and 2022.The establishment of the city tree and flower can be divided into four periods: forming period,acceleration period,late boom period and optimization period,while the establishment of city flowers can be divided into five stages: forming stage,vigorous stage,vigorous stage,ate boom stage and mature stage.The set up of city trees and flowers is dynamically developed.So far,the city trees of30 cities and the city flowers of 49 cities have been changed due to the adjustment of the cities’ administrative division,the poor application effect,the alteration of the cities’ development concepts and the policies’ promotion and optimization.(4)The application of city trees and flowers shows obvious geographical distribution characteristics,which is closely related to climate conditions,economic and cultural development level.In eastern China and central China,the proportion of cities with established city trees and city flowers is higher,while the selection of city trees and city flowers in northwest and southwest China lags behind relatively,and applications in some regions tend to be similar.From the dimension of temperature zone division,the application of city trees and flowers follows regional climate characteristics,while from the perspective of geographical location,it shows downtrend in the proportion of evergreen and deciduous trees from south to north.(5)Residence area,residence year,education level,age and other factors affect people’s value preference for city trees and flowers.Problems such as low public awareness,lack of urban publicity,single application mode and insufficient management and maintenance in the later period still exsit.Therefore,this study proposed measures such as perfecting the identification of city trees and flowers,attaching importance to the selection of tree species,promoting the public cognition of city trees and flowers,expanding the application mode of city trees and flowers,and establishing and enhancing the management and protection mechanism.It’s the first time that a paper systematically analyzes the selection,application and spatialtemporal distribution characteristics of city trees and flowers in China,and presents the scientific nature and diversity of the application selection of city trees and flowers in multiple dimensions,providing references for the selection of city trees and flowers and plant landscape planning in China.