Abstract:Illicium lanceolatum A. C. Smith, an important and endangered medicinal plant of China, has declined rapidly in population size in recent years. Interspecific associations, which play an important role in ecosystem function, can reflect interspecific competition within community. The species association in I. lanceolatum community was studied based on 2×2 contingency tables of species, including analysis of species association and χ2 test. The results showed that the significant positive associations [W(49.607)＞χ20.05,32(46.194)] were present among the tree species as a whole in the community. The percentage of species-pairs with significant positive association among them was higher than that with significant negative association, and the number of species-pair without significant association had the highest percentage, which implied that the community was stable. There were significant positive associations between I. lanceolatum and species, such as Photinia serrulata, Eurya acutisepala, Castanopsis sclerophylla and Symplocos setchuensis etc., and the significant negative association only occured with Liquidambar formosana, but it had no correlationship with most species. The association coefficients (AC) between I. lanceolatum and most species are more than 0.5 (about 74.3%), with positive species-pairs more than negative, which implied a dominant status of I. lanceolatum in the community and a coexisting relation with other species. These results can provide a valuable reference for the population protection, in situ, rehabilitation and planting mode and habitat selection.
