Abstract:To study the community structure of understory herbaceous plants in the early recovery stage after the fire, the burned Pinus tabuliformis forests areas of Taiyue Mountain in March 2019 were selected to investigate the plant community structure at the early ecological restoration stage. The community similarity index, diversity index, stability index, TWINSPAN, and DCA were employed for analyzing the structure, diversity, and stability of plant communities. Our results show that in the early restoration stage, the shrub, and perennial grass were dominants in the communities, among which the hemicryptophytes accounted for the largest proportion. The dominant species were Carex lanceolata and Lespedeza floribunda. Furthermore, the similarity coefficient and diversity index of plant community in seven sample plots were generally small, while the evenness index was comparably higher. However, the plant community feature among seven plots existed heterogeneity, and all indicators of plant communities in plot 6 and 7 were relatively higher than those in other sample plots. Moreover, seven plant community patterns were identified by the TWINSPAN method, including I. Carex lanceolata + Artemisia eriopoda + Sanguisorba officinalis community, II. Lespedeza floribunda+Carex lanceolata+Oxytropis bicolor community, III. Lespedeza floribunda+Carex lanceolata+Gueldenstaedtia verna community, IV. Lespedeza floribunda + Carex lanceolata+Adenophora trachelioides community, V. Carex lanceolata + Artemisia stechmanniana+Aster hispidus community, VI. Artemisia stechmanniana community, and VII. Carex lanceolata+Aster hispidus+Artemisia lavandulifolia community. The result of DCA ordination suggested that theplant community structures at the early ecological restoration stage of burned areas were simple; only a minor change occurred with plots and slope position. Among them, only plot 7 and the other two groups of plant communities were significantly different. The results further depicted that in the early recovery stage, the plant community was in an unstable state; the stability indexes in different sample plots were much different, with the highest value in plot 1 and lowest in plot 5. In conclusion, the plant community in the burned Pinus tabuliformis forests areas, whose structure is under dynamic changing, was still at an early stage of succession accompanied by poor stability and low diversity and similarity, but the dominant population has a high similarity, and the plant community structure is still in dynamic change. Our finding shighlights the characteristics of the plant community structure in the burned area of Taiyue Mountain at the early stage of restoration, accumulates ecological data of the plant community in the burned area, and can provide a scientific basis for ecological restoration in this area.