Based on published reports and direct observation, the common resources of landscape plant species in the Shanghai area were identified and studied in terms of the landscape characteristics of timing sequence changes over a one year time period. The results showed that there were 199 common landscape plant species in Shanghai, distributed in 67 families and 129 genera. These plants were categorized by three ornamental characteristics: flowers, foliage and fruits. The species were thus further analyzed according to the time periods which these characteristics were present. The results showed that flower ornamental distributed throughout the year, particularly from April to June, and plant species with colorful foliage could be seen every month, and particularly in November and December. On the other hand, few plant species with fruit ornamentals were observed in Shanghai area. The diversity of landscape timing sequence changes of the 199 plant species under examination was then analyzed by using the Shannon-Weiner and Simpson index formulas. The results showed that the higher diversity was observed in January, February and from August to October, while the lowest diversity was recorded from March to July and during November and December. The diversity of landscape characteristics of these plants was ranked according to foliage, flowers and fruit. Using this method, one park and one plant community were selected to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of their time-changing plant landscape, with the goal of assessing the validity of the chosen ranking method. These results in the present study would be helpful to evaluate the plant landscape in a specified space and further enrich the diversity of plant and landscape by a target-oriented way.Modern urban landscaping brings ecological and social benefits to city residents, including direct contact with seasonal scenery changes. Landscape plants are the main elements for these timing sequence changes, and their annual life rhythms provide the basis for developing harmonious landscaping [1] . Indeed, timing sequence changes of landscape plants is the key factor for enriching garden diversity, as emphasis on diverse seasonal changes of landscape plants is an important way to improve the quality of urban green spaces. Up to now, there were many reports on the importance and evaluation about the seasonal changes of plants around the world [2][3] .In the past two decades, landscaping has made significant achievements in improving the public parks in Shanghai. Specifically, considerable effort has been made to increase the seasonal changes and introduce the diverse colorful plant species in green space. For example, through selecting and domesticating a variety of colorful plant and shrub species not indigenous to the Shanghai area, the diversity of foliage ornamentals has increased [4][5] . However, this process requires long-term research and practice so as to achieve a properly multifaceted enriching diversity of landscape plants in Shanghai. It is therefore import...