Native plants dominate Guangzhou’s urban greenery: research reveals unique diversity patterns across subtropical city

Date: June 3, 2026

Guangzhou, China: A research team led by researchers from the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences has completed a two-year field survey on vascular plant diversity across core urban green spaces (UGSs) in Guangzhou, South China, publishing key findings in Biological Diversity to support evidence-based urban green space planning and biodiversity protection for subtropical megacities.

The research randomly set 12 sampling plots each for urban parks, residential green spaces and street green spaces, covering a 15-kilometer urban radial gradient split into central (0–5 km), intermediate (5–10 km) and outer (10–15 km) zones during field campaigns spanning 2021 to 2022. In total, 207 vascular plant species from 172 genera and 83 families were documented, merely accounting for 5.9% of Guangzhou’s total native vascular plant resources.

Notably, native flora dominates all green space categories: native species make up 86.9% of park vegetation, 91.2% of residential greenery and 95.7% of roadside plants, while alien species stay below 10% across all three UGS types. Urban parks emerge as the primary invasive hotspot with 4.6% invasive plant proportion, yet zero invasive species were detected along city streets. Statistical results via one-way ANOVA confirm street green spaces carry significantly lower species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity index than parks and residential greens.

Along the urban-rural gradient, plant diversity follows a distinctive high-low-high curve: both Shannon-Wiener and Pielou evenness drop sharply in intermediate transitional zones, triggered by habitat fragmentation, inconsistent landscape management and intensified construction disturbance amid rapid urban sprawl. Another striking structural imbalance exists: herbaceous plants occupy 46.14% of all recorded species versus only 12.99% shrubs, caused by landscape preference for easy-maintenance herbaceous vegetation in routine green construction.

Dr. Hongxiao Liu, corresponding author of this study, highlighted the practical value of outputs: “Our findings deliver targeted suggestions including prioritizing native shrub cultivation to fix vertical vegetation imbalance, strengthening invasive species monitoring inside urban parks, and restoring habitat connectivity in fragmented intermediate urban belts.” Supported by Guangdong provincial basic research project and National Natural Science Foundation of China, this subtropical urban plant dataset can serve as a benchmark for biodiversity management of similar tropical and subtropical metropolises globally.

Original Source

Liu, Ke, Lingbo Ji, Qinfeng Guo, Hai Ren, and Hongxiao Liu. 2025. “The Distribution Patterns of Vascular Plant Diversity in Green Spaces in Guangzhou, Southern China.” Biological Diversity 2(2–3): 110–118.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bod2.70009

Keywords

Floristic, native species, park, residential green space, street greenery, subtropical, urban biodiversity

About the Author

Ke Liu (First author), PhD, Landscape Engineer at the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research and practice focus on botanical garden landscape management, urban landscape design and ecological landscape planning.

Hongxiao Liu (Corresponding author), PhD, Associate Researcher at the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on ecosystem service assessment, nature exposure and mental health, as well as urban green infrastructure management. She has presided over eight research projects including General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, published more than 30 academic papers with a total citation of 2434.

About the Journal

Biological Diversity (ISSN: 2994-4139) is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal sponsored by the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and published in partnership with Wiley. Launched in 2024 and issued quarterly, it is dedicated to advancing biodiversity conservation, safeguarding ecosystem functions and services, and promoting the sustainable utilization of biological resources under global environmental change. The journal welcomes original research, reviews, commentaries, and short communications across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including botany, zoology, microbiology, taxonomy, phylogenetics, genomics, cytology, ecology, climatology, economics, sociology, and real-time policy theory. It publishes innovative research addressing pressing global challenges of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.