Urban forests are an essential part of the urban ecosystem and have multiple ecological functions. This study sample data of 1 371 urban forest relevés in Shanghai from 2004 to 2019, to analyze the family composition and geographic distribution of 353 species in 83 families, 218 genera, We also classified the relevés into eight vegetation types by following relevant principles and methods of vegetation classification, and then compared species richness, Shannon-Wiener index and Simpson index among different vegetation types.The results show that: (1) Shanghai urban forests showed a “legacy” phenomenon, that is, single-family and single genera dominate the species composition; (2) In terms of geographical composition, all species can be grouped into 15 and 23 areal-types at family and genus levels respectively; (3) Broad-leaved forests were the dominate vegetation of Shanghai urban forests; (4) Evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest had higher value of diversity indexes, while bamboo forest had lower values. The research has initially formed a Shanghai urban forest sample database, providing references for Shanghai vegetation research and urban forest construction.