Studies on the Flora and Vegetations along the Middle Canal of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project

We conducted an intensive vegetation survey along the middle canal of the south-to-north water transfer project.The results showed:(1)The main vegetation types were composed of about 360 species,belonging to 106 families and 252 genera.The flora had typical temperate characteristics with a transitional nature from tropical to subtropical flora.It had a low level of endemism with only 1 family 4 genera and 4 species endemic to China.There were no rare & endangered plant species protected at national or local level along the middle route of the south-to-north water transfer project.(2)There were 5 vegetation types and 65 formations according to Flexible beta Clustering;the structure of the tree layer and the shrub layer was very simple,while the herb layer was much more abundant.The results have broad implications for vegetation recovery along the middle canal of the interbasin water transfer project.