FLORISTIC COMPOSITION AND SIMILARITY OF A CAATINGA FOREST AREA, BAHIA, BRAZIL

The present study evaluated floristic composition, similarity and the phytogeographic structuring framework of Caatinga in the Contendas do Sincora National Forest. The climate of the region is BSwh', with annual precipitation of 500 to 700 mm and altitude between 300 and 400 m. The soil is eutrophic red-yellow ultisol. Floristic similarity was established by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean. Fifty-one (51) taxa were found distributed in 20 families. The families with the largest number of genera and species were Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae. The classification for this physiognomy was Woody Savanna-Steppe. Floristic similarity revealed a tendency of grouping between fragments of the same state and ecoregion. Despite the history of exploitation, the floristic composition was as expected for Caatinga areas. The similarity analysis revealed that the area in question does not have a similar floristic identity to the other Caatinga areas analyzed.