Review of Phytosociological Vegetation Units of Abies koreana Forest on Mt. Halla

한라산 구상나무림의 식물사회학적 식생단위의 재검토

The character and differential species of Abies koreana community, a subalpine coniferous forest, on Mt. Hall a and its vegetation unit were reviewed, based on literature published up to date. Song and Nakanish (1985a) originally described Saso-Abietetum koreanae Song et Nakanishi 1985 for the community. At that time, we were fully justified in establishing the nomenclature. Nevertheless, against this nomenclature, Yim and Kim (1990) made a objection, and it was renamed as what is called Saso quelpaertensi-Abietetum koreanae (Song et Nakanishi) corr. Yim et Kim 1990. In their previous study(Yim et al., 1990) being the root of the nomenclature, however, they did not study on the full layers containing the moss layer of bryophyte and lichen for the stratification of the Abies koreana community, in spite of the importance of the species of moss layer for the selection of character and differential species of vegetation units belonging to Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. 1939, and also the floristic composition from their study was not compared with that of the vegetation units of the subalpine coniferous forests in Korea Peninsula, Japan, Maritime Province of Siberia and Northeast China. Among the four character species selected by them, it is clear that Maianthemum bifolim and Lonicera maackii are species no having the characteristic value from the phytosociological viewpoint. Besides, Sasa quelpaerthensis described in their nomenclature is a synonym of S. palmata (Suzuki, 1978). Therefore, their nomenclature is invalid and comes under a contravention (Infringement of Priority) to the Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Barkman et al., 1986). Saso-Abietetum koreanae was amply justified also by author's recent study (Song, 1991)examined throughout the range of subalpine coniferous forest in Korea. With the discussion of justification of Saso-Abietetum koreanae, a association discussion was brought in the present review.