Flora in Brazil

Растительность Бразилии

South of the vast Amazonian forest is a mixture of semideciduous forest (mata) and scrub forests. The characteristic flora of the northeast interior is the carnauba wax-yielding palm in the states of Ceará and Piauí. To the east there are big areas of thorn scrub, the result of generally poor soils and periodic devastating droughts. Along the humid coast are many mango, cajú, guava, coconut, and jack-fruit trees, as well as large sugar and cotton plantations, the latter indigenous. Within the savanna, sparse forests, and "campos cerrados" (enclosed fields of badly deforested, populous Minas Gerais), there are various woody shrubs, lianas, and epiphytes, the staghorn fern, and an abundance of herbs, especially grasses. Brazil has many fair to good pasturage grasses, on which millions of beef cattle, not always of high grade, and some dairy cattle in the favored southern states graze.

The kingdom of plants contains an estimated 40.000 - 50.000 known species. It is considered the single largest flora in the world. The floristic diversity of the Atlantic Rainforest / (Mata Atlântica) is particularly rich. With more than 20.000 plants (8.000 endemic) and 2.300 animals (725 endemic), this biome is one of the top 5 biodiversity hotspots on Earth.

The density of biodiversity in this biome is particularly impressive. A biomap of the University of Bonn from 1999 indicates more than 5.000 vascular plant species in an area of 10.000 sqkm of the tropical rainforest ecosystem in Southeast Brazil. According to UNEP - WCMC, more than 450 woody plant species per hectare can be found in some spots of the Atlantic Rainforest Southeast Reserves World Heritage Site (larger than in the Amazon Rainforest).

The Atlantic forest is located mainly in the mountainous areas close to the sea, but it is also found in spaces in the interior. Its original area extended from the state of Rio Grande do Norte to the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This ecosystem has lost area from human occupation since 1500. The largest preserved areas are in the Serra do Mar (Sea Mountain) and in the Mantiqueira Mountain (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo States), mainly due to their uneven topography that it difficult for human occupation. The Atlantic forest has characteristics of tropical forests.

More than 50% of its trees are endemic and are located no where else. This transforms it into a forest with the biggest biodiversity on the planet, with larger diversity than the Amazon. This diversity is a result of the variety of climate (as will be seen) and to topography that facilitates rain. The area possesses high precipitation with values from 2000 to 3000mm/year, and consequently the relative humidity of the air is extremely high from 65 to 100%. The soil is rich and the nutrient cycle is extremely fast.

The permanent substratum mobility, hinders the fixation of vegetation in beach areas. Behind the beach, there are dunes. They are formed through a direct link to tidal movement and by the fact that winds always blow in the direction from sea to land. This area has such unfavorable conditions as high salinity, lack of organic matter, high mobility of the substratum, speed of water drainage and high warming of superficial layers. Due to these conditions, this area doesn't have a great variety of plant species. Those that exist possess adaptations to the place. These are called pioneer plants. The pioneers facilitate the appearing of other plants culminating with the appearing of the sandbank.

The sandbank is the subsequent area of the dunes. Its relief is flat and it possesses slow moving rivers. The species of plants living in this area possess a gradation of growth in height. The species are lower when closer to the beach and gain more height towards the interior. The sandbank was called bad forest by the Indians, because its plants are extremely thorny which turns the forest into a difficult barrier.

The "manguezal " (coastal swamp area) is a singular kind of coast vegetation, resultant of the mixture of the sea water and the sediments of rivers. The soil is muddy, and almost always flooded (varying with the tide), its salinity is high, and it is not very oxygenated. This hinders the existence of a rich flora. Due to the great amount of organic matter in decompositon, the "manguezal" has a scent of sulfur. Due to this great amount of organic matter and because it is a sheltered area of from waves, the "manguezal" is chosen by many species of crustaceans and other organisms for spawning. To survive, the flora needed to adapt for the specific characteristics of the "manguezal". For example, some plants have developed aerial roots. Some species produce fruits that don't come off of the branches, thus facilitating seeds that germinate in the aerial part, emitting long and vertical roots that facilitate the fast fixation, when dropping to the soil.