Abstract
In this first report on the flora of Mauritia flexuosa L. f. palm swamps in the Pantanal wetland of Brazil, we surveyed and compared the angiosperm flora of eight areas of palm swamps in the Pantanal plain to determine if they correspond to veredas. Studied areas were four sites near the upland in Rio Verde and Coxim, and four in the Parque Estadual do Pantanal do Rio Negro, Aquidauana, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. To determine species similarity, we compared our results with inventories of aquatic plants of the Pantanal and of species of veredas in the state. Using the wandering method, we recorded a total of 385 species of phanerogams. Species richness was higher in Rio Verde/Coxim (273 species) than in Rio Negro (243 species), with a similarity of 33.7%. We found a rare and endemic plant, Polygala grazielae Marques, first record in the Pantanal. We found that both sites correspond to two types of palm swamps but with different floras. The species associated with M. flexuosa in the park are much the same as those of seasonally flooding grasslands of the Pantanal, while on the edge of the plain many species are common to the upland true veredas, particularly on organic soil. Thus, we conclude that the Rio Verde/Coxim areas are true veredas. These palm swamps and veredas in the Pantanal should receive the same legal protection as the veredas in Cerrado.
Highlights
Veredas correspond to one of the grassland elements in the Cerrado domain (Carvalho, 1991)
MATERIAL AND METHODS We inventoried the angiosperm flora of eight selected areas of Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps in two sites in the Pantanal wetland
We found 385 phanerogams in Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps in the Pantanal wetland, recording 243 species in the Rio Negro Park and 273 in Rio Verde/Coxim, both sites having 130 species in common (Appendix)
Summary
Veredas correspond to one of the grassland elements in the Cerrado domain (Carvalho, 1991). Veredas are legally protected and considered Permanent Preservation Areas (Brasil, 2002). These wetlands suffer anthropic impacts that can become irreversible (Oliveira et al, 2009), for being highly sensitive to disturbances and poorly resilient (Carvalho, 1991). We sought to inventory the flora of representative areas in order to compare the flora of two types of M. flexuosa swamps at eight sites in the Pantanal wetland in relation to the upland veredas and to the aquatic macrophytes of the Pantanal, to determine if the areas with moriche palms in the Pantanal can be considered veredas
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