Floristic composition of a fragment of Caatinga in the rural community Mocambo de Baixo, municipality of Patos – PB, Brazil

ABSTRACT

The Caatinga biome has plant and animal species that have developed mechanisms that allow them to resist the edaphoclimatic conditions of the region. Therefore, this work identified the phytosociological composition of a fragment of caatinga forest located at the rural community of Mocambo de Baixo, in the municipality of Patos-PB, Brazil, and analyzed the potentialities of the tree component by means of a forest inventory, considering the density, frequency, dominance, cover and importance values of the tree species, and the Shannon-Weaver and the Pielou equability index values of the adult and regenerating tree communities. A total of 1402 individuals were found: 534 adult, 510 regenerating and 358 dead plants. There were 10 species, 10 genera and 06 families of adult individuals, and 08 species, 08 genera and 05 families for the regenerating plants. The most expressive botanical families of adult or regenerating plants were Apocynaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Fabaceae. Densities of 953.7 and 910.7 ind.ha-1 were found for adult and regenerant plants, respectively. The highest values of tree cover and importance were estimated for Aspidosperma pyrifolium. The Shannon- Waever and the Pielou equability index values were 1.38 and 0.60, respectively. Adult individuals were most abundant in class I for diameter (1.9 cm < D < 4.4 cm) and height (1.4 m < H < 3.4 m), and regeneranting plants were most abundant in class II (H > 1 m). The estimated volume of stacked wood averaged approximately 38 st.ha^-1..

Keywords
Phytosociology; Brazilian semiarid; Plant biomass