Flora arbórea e arborescente do Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brasil

Abstract

The National Park of the Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil, covers the largest continuous fragment of Atlantic Forest of the southern region of the country, with area of 185,262.5 ha. The present study is aimed at bringing unpublished data on the arboreal and arborescent flora of the site. For this, the species were inventoried from field collections and herbarium records, and the confirmed species were classified by the following parameters: origin and behavior, occurrence environments, successive ecological categories, threatened species and dispersion syndromes. Two hundred and sixty arboreal and arborescent species were confirmed, distributed in 161 genera and 53 families. The families with the greatest diversity were Fabaceae (35 species), Myrtaceae (29), Rutaceae (13), Euphorbiaceae (12), Meliaceae (12) and Solanaceae (10). Ten percent of the species are exotic and nine species have been listed on the Official List of endangered species in Brazil. Among the environments of occurrence, the most diverse was the egde, but the diversity in primitive forest and secondary forest was also high, besides some species occur in wet grasslands. Most of the species are pioneers and more than three-quarters of the zoochorical species. The analysis of the parameters studied and the high richness of arboreal and arborescent species in the area indicate the great importance to conserve and manage this ecosystem correctly.