Abstract:

Davidia involucrata was a rare valuable and endangered plant in China. In order to study neighborhood competition effects, the intraspecific and interspecific competion intensity in Davidia involucrata community in Wolong Nature Reserve was analyzed quantitatively by using Hegyi individual tree competition index model. And the morphological characteristics of Davidia involucrata were investigated under different neighborhood competition intensity . The results showed that the competition intensity in Davidia involucrata decreased gradually with the increasing of forest tree diameter class and the intraspecific competition in Davidia involucrata was more intensive than interspecific competition. The order of the intraspecific and interspecific competition intensity at the community level was: intraspecific > Lindira pulcherrima > Juglans
cathayensis> Cornus controversa > Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana > Phoebe neurantha >Symplocos botryantha Franch>Acer oliverianum > Prunus branchypoda > Cyclobalanopsis oxyodon . The relationship between competition intensity and individual growth of objective tree closely followed the following equation: CI = AD^{- B} . The change in competition intensity is very small when the diameter of the objective tree reaches 30 cm . The model can stimulate and predict the intraspecific and interspecific competition efficiently. The morphology of Davidia involucrata , such as stepwise bifurcation ratio 1∶2, branching angle, average branch and current-year branch lenghth of the main stem in different strata , was modified under differentcompetition intensity. The plasticity of substrate branching angle , substrate average branch length and substrate currentyear
branch length was very obvious in response to different neighborhood competion intensity. That suggests Davidia involucrata can improve its capacity to explore the resource and adapt to different habitats through morphological changes .

Key words: Davidia involucrata