ESTRUTURA FITOSSOCIOLÓGICA DE UMA ÁREA DE CERRADO NA ESTAÇÃO ECOLÓGICA DE ITAPEVA, SÃO PAULO, BRASIL

Abstract

The Itapeva (SP) Ecological Station is a conservation unit that is administered by the State of Sao Paulo Forestry Institute and has 106.77 hectares of land. In order to provide subsidies to future plans of the management of the place, as well as to know the vegetation structure, some phytosociological parameters were calculated using the quadrant- point method 800 individuals were sampled; they belong to 18 bothanical families, in a total of 30 species. The general average distance of the point-plant was of 1.81 m, providing a general average area of 3.85 m2 and the total density by area was of 2.870 trees ha-1. The Fabaceae family had the largest number of sampled species (five species), followed by the Lauraceae family (three), the Melastomataceae (two), the Araliaceae (two) and the Erythroxylaceae (two). The enumarated species are common in the SP Cerrado, notwithstanding they are not exclusive as they also occur in paludicola formations and mixed ombrophylous forest. The results point to a perturbed area, with the degradation of the native Cerrado and the invasion of other species, what suggests the urgent demand of a more accurate study that may allow the development of recovery and the preservation of the area