Investigation and Evaluation of Wild Ornamental Groundcover Plant Resources in Shenzhen

To promote rational exploitation and make better use of existing wild ground cover plant resources, field investigations on the distribution and biodiversity of wild groundcover plants in Shenzhen were conducted in this study. It was found that there were 562 wild groundcover plant species, belonging to 109 families and 246 genera. A comprehensive assessment model was then established based on the principle of analytical hierarchy process(AHP), and applied to assess the ornamental characteristics of all ground cover plants, and 110 species were confirmed to have high ornamental value and further grouped into 4 grades. Among these plants, 30 species including Senecio scandens, Elatostema involucratum, Blechnum orientale have extremely high ornamental value and should gain extensive exploitation; 62 species have some exploitation value such as Ardisia hanceana, Piper sarmentosum, and they could be exploited at certain level; the other 18 species such as Arundina graminifolia, Platycodon grandiflorus, with relative low exploitation value were not recommended. The results could be an important reference for exploiting and utilizing the wild resources of ornamental groundcover plants properly in the future.