THE STUDY OF PLANT COMMUNITY IN KHAO KASET FOREST AREA AND TREE SPECIES DIVERSITY IN KASETSART SI RACHA CAMPUS

Abstract

A Study on plant community was conducted at Khao Kaset forest areas which located behind Kasetsart University Si Racha Campus, Chonburi province, from January 2003 - December 2004. Fifty square plots of 10 meter x 10 meter and two square plots of 10 meter x 50 meter in size were set up for quantitative data collection. The stratification analysis, profile and crown cover diagram, was carried out from 2 plots of analyses of 10 meter x 50 meter. Tree species list, excluded Palmae, was surveyed, identified and counted in Si Racha Campus. The results showed that 129 species from 116 families and 46 genera were found at Khao Kaset forest areas. The prevailing forest was the mixed deciduous forest (MDF), however, it was disturbed by forest fire. Recently, the natural succession was process in which the species compositions were mixed between MDF and dry evergreen forest species and those trees were small size. The common tree species are Atalantia monophylla, Bauhinia bracteata, Lannea coromandelica, Terminalia triptera, Diospyros bejaudii and Antidesma ghaesembilla. The commonly found sapling species are A. monophylla, B. bracteata, and Uvaria cordata.  Seedling is very rare on forest floor; most of found species are gramineae; Panicum maximum and Chromolaena odoratum and tree species found are B. bracteata, Streblus asper, Urobotrya siamensis, Harrisonia perforata and Stemona tuberosa. At Si Racha Campus, there are 161 trees species from 131 families and 54 genera and 2,267 total number of trees. The most abundant tree species is Mangifera indica, following by Pterocapus macrocarpus, Alstonia scholaris, and Peltophorum pterocarpum.