2022 Volume 85 Issue 5 Pages 645-650
This study examined the habitat characteristics of Shortia uniflora, which is one of the main attractors of flower tourism in hilly and mountainous areas. Due to the distribution and vegetation surveys around the open flowering site, nine colonies with areas of 300–700 m2 and some above 1000 m2 were found in addition to seven colonies with an areas of 50–200 m2. The results revealed that S. uniflora prefers steep, upper parts of the north-facing slope and avoids the cedar forest with many litters. The communities were also commonly distributed within evergreen cypress forests, which were deciduous broadleaf forests 70 years ago, in 1950. Regardless of the type of forest canopy (cypress forest, including the open flowering site, and deciduous broad-leaved forest), the floristic composition was dominated by common species. This species is shade-tolerant and has continued to grow in the forest even after the conversion to cypress forest. The area of the community in the open flowering site was 8,000 m2, and the community size was much larger than other surrounding communities. The extremely large size of the community is a result of the continuous appropriate forest floor management according to the habitat characteristics, and the flowering landscape was evaluated as a local resource based on the ecological and sociological area-context.
