Floristic diversity and health status of street trees on some public roads of the plateau municipality in the city of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Trees of alignment, private and public gardens are becoming essential to maintaining and improving the quality of life for urban populations. It is with this in mind that the present research was initiated in the Plateau municipality. An mobile survey and linear inventories were carried out on avenues and boulevards in order to obtain up-to-date information on tree populations. The objective was to assess floristic diversity and determine the health status of trees of alignment in the municipality of Plateau. These inventories allowed us to count 1776 individuals in total. These individuals are distributed among 75 species, 67 genera and 23 families. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index is average, at 2.649 and 2.726 for boulevards and avenues respectively. The horizontal structure shows that, at both sites, high numbers of individuals are concentrated in the class above 100 cm in diameter. The health status of woody plants reveals that at both sites, more than half of the woody plants at each site are healthy. However, parasitism rates are observed in both environments. These are 21.2 % and 30.06 % of parasitized individuals on boulevards and avenues, respectively. As a result, good urban forestry practices prove effective through the careful selection of diverse tree species and by considering trees as essential infrastructure for sustainable planning and management.