Vegetation Structure of the Torreya Nucifera Stand in Korea

In Korea, Torreya nucifera (L.) Siebold & Zuccarini is widely distributed in the warm temperate zone of South coastal area and Jeju island, mainly as preserved forest in the vicinity of the Buddhist temple and Confucian temple. The objective of this study is in order to develop the conservation method and comprehension of vegetation community by current vegetation structure analysis of Torreya nucifera stand. As the results, the number of surveyed species in Torreya nucifera stand were total 148 species with 28 species of tree layer, 38 species of subtree layer, and 82 species of shrub layer. The appearance of the common species were Ligustrum obtusifolium Siebold & Zucc., Hedera rhombea Bean, and Trachelospermum asiaticum Nakai var. asiaticum. All the story of the surveyed region, Torreya nucifera maintained the current dominant species, but the subtree layer and shrub layer was decreased dominant rate because of the development of the crown of tree layer and biased growth of the subtree layer. Most of the tree layer and subtree layer in Torreya nucifera stands are composed of the sprout forest. Therefore, these results suggest that in order to maintain the healthy stand it is demanded for the application of selection thinning method for reducing crown competition in Torreya nucifera forests.