RESUMO
The effects of landscape pattern on plant diversity have been widely reported in literature, with that of urban landscape remaining largely unknown. To explore the impacts of urbanization landscape pattern on plant diversity and its scale effect, 105 plots were investigated in Shunyi District, Beijing. The α and ß diversity of each plot were calculated, and 43 urban landscape indices of 10 scales in the range of 100-1000 m were analyzed with 100 m as the step. The results showed that the urban landscape area metric, core metrics and edge metrics were negatively related with diversity of indigenous plant species at all the examined scales. Shape complexity metrics contributed to plant diversity at small scale, while the area-weighted complexity metrics contributed at large scale. Other metrics, such as connection, proximity, cohesion, fragmentation and interspersion juxtaposition of urban patches showed a slight and unsteady relationship with the diversity of indigenous plant species. The urbanization intensity was negatively related with scales and with plant diversity at all scales. Urban landscape could better conserve indigenous plant diversity by reasonably dividing an urbanized area into many small patches with simple edge. Our results presented suitable urban landscape indicators for preserving plant diversity and suggestions for the construction of ecological cities.