Biogeographic and anthropogenic factors shaping the distribution and species assemblage of heritage trees in China.

Heritage trees are recognized as elements of cultural landscapes and as keystone ecological entities in human dominated landscapes, often bestowing high socio-cultural and ecological values. Current understanding ofspecies distribution patterns and broad-scale species assemblages of heritage trees is limited. This study analyzedthe diversity, distribution patterns, and origins of heritage trees and assessed the underlying factors contributingto their occurrence at the national scale in China. Data were drawn from published and online sources re presenting 561 regions across China. There were 1140 species including 105 endangered ones preserved asheritage trees. Heritage trees originated from four sources of species provenance: natural forest species 73.51 %of total species), native ruderal species (10.53 %), domesticated species (6.75 %) and exotic species (9.21 %).The origin of heritage trees differed across climatic zones.