Abstract:
The study was conducted on Gemechis natural forest, West Hararghe, Oromia Regional state, Ethiopia
with the objective of determining the floristic composition, structural analysis and regeneration of
wood plant species. Systematic sampling was used to collect vegetation data. Accordingly,50 sampling
quadrats of 20 m x 20 m were laid along six line transects at every 50 m interval within which
five 5 m x 5 m small quadrats were laied to sample woody species with <2cm DBH (diameter at breast
height). In each quadrat, all live woody species were recorded with their number counted and DBH
measured for those with DBH>2cm. Fifty one (51) woody species belonging to 50 genera and 34
families were recorded in the forest. The collected specimens were composed of 64.7% of tree, 31.3%
shrubs and 3.9% of lianas. The most species rich families were Rosaceae, Lamiaceae and
Myrsinaceae. Shannon diversity index and evenness of woody species of the Gemechis natural
forest were 3.04 and 0.77, respectively. The total density of woody species recorded in
Gemechis forest was 3430 individuals ha-1
.
.Total basal area of woody species in the study
area was 31.12 m
2
h
-1
. The dominant and ecologically most important tree species in Gemechis
Forest on the basis of their importance value index( IVI) values were Maesa lanceolata (19.2),
Rytigna neglecta (16.9), Maytenus sp. (15.9), Bersama abyssinica (14.2), Argomuellera
macrophyllab (11.7), Dovyalis caffra (10.9), Teclea nobilis (9.24) and Vernonia amygdalina
(7.3). Cummulative DBH class distribution showed that large number of individuals fall in
lower DBH class, which shows that this vegetations is in a good regeneration status. However,
as some species are of irregular population structure and low IVI further study should be conducted to identify factors that negatively affect them. In general, the data from this study
showed that the forest had high species diversity. From the cummulative DBH class
distribution of the study area, the number of individuals that fall in lower DBH classes were
higher than their number at higher DBH classes which indicate that seedlings and sapling
were more in number than the mature/older woody species which suggesting that vegetation of
Gemechis forest was generally in a good regeneration status
