Sloping meadows lying beside rice paddy fields have among the highest floristic species richness in the hilly agricultural ‘yatsu’ landscape in Japan. Little is known about factors, especially the non-local-scale factors, affecting the distribution of these semi-natural meadows. I investigated the relationships between the landscape structure and local environmental variables, and the species distribution in the sloping semi-natural meadows in Chiba prefecture, Japan. I surveyed species in 54 plots measuring 1 X 10 m. TWINSPAN classification defined four groups of plots. One group consisted of significantly greater numbers of species characteristic of the Miscanthetea sinensis community than in the other 3 groups, indicating floristically diverse semi-natural meadows. The distribution of plots was well explained by non-adjacency of paved farm roads, adjacency of secondary woodland in the 1940s, and >34% relative light intensity in the meadows. Both present local environmental conditions and present or past landscape patterns determined the distribution of this semi-natural habitat. These results will contribute to the selection of appropriate management strategies to conserve this valuable habitat. Keywords: linear habitat, characteristic species of Miscanthetea sinensis, Yatsu landscape, adjacent land use, land use history, paved farm road
