A STUDY OF THE SPECIES DIVERSITY OF LANDSCAPE TREES ON THREE UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES FROM INNER MONGOLIA

The use of woody plants within planting arrangements on university campuses serve a critical role as these plants have both an educational value in addition to their ecological function. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the diversity of woody plants on three universities campuses from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which includes Inner Mongolia University (IMU), Inner Mongolia Agriculture University (IMAU) and Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU). A total of 85 species in 29 families, with 10 species of evergreen trees, 43 species of broadleaved trees and 32 species of shrubs belonging to 2, 20 and 13 families respectively were recorded within the three campus gardens. IMU, IMAU and IMNU each holds 63, 57 and 43 species, which belong to 24, 22 and 15 families respectively. The proportion of evergreen trees, broadleaved trees and shrubs in IMU were selected to display four clearly distinct seasons on campus. There is a lack of shrubs on the IMAU campus; therefore the seasons are not clearly defined. We suggest that striving for a harmonious relationship between the character of the architecture and the landscaping of the trees, an increase of species diversity and a proper ratio of indigenous trees would bring a more unified character to all three university campuses.