Composição e similaridade florística do Jardim Botânico da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is one of the richest ecosystems of the world and, although well represented among biomes of the state of Minas Gerais is still lacking of floristics studies that document the richness of its flora. The area of the Botanical Garden of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (JB-UFJF) is inserted in the Zona da Mata region, in Minas Gerais, city of Juiz de Fora, which suffered the impact of coffee cultivation and cattle. The area is undergoing a process of regeneration for about 70 years, being close to other forest fragments that have great environmental relevance and integrating the ecological corridor of Serra do Mar. The aim of this study was to determine the floristic composition of the JB-UFJF as well as its similarity to forest fragments located in southeastern of Brazil, in order to evaluate the importance of the JB-UFJF to into the conservation of the flora of the city and its floristic links with other forest fragments. The collections were carried out in 2011 and 2012 and the collected material is deposited in the Herbarium CESJ of UFJF. The similarity was calculated by Jaccard index with a dendrogram based on the Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) between the JB-UFJF and other 12 floristic surveys of MG, RJ and SP. 432 species were recorded, distributed in 269 genera and 96 families. The families with the biggest richness of species were Fabaceae (35 spp), Melastomataceae (27 spp), Rubiaceae (27 spp), Solanaceae (21 spp), and Asteraceae (20 spp). The richest genera were Miconia (15 spp), Piper (12 spp), Psychotria (9 spp) and Solanum (8 spp). Six species found in the area are endangered according to the Red List of Minas Gerais (2000). Cyclopogon variegatus had its first record for Minas Gerais. The richness of the herbaceous species was the second highest (21,29%), following the arboreal (50,46%), which shows the importance of the herbaceous stratum in floristic surveys. The similarity of the JB-UFJF with other fragments of semi-deciduous forest of Minas Gerais and the pattern observed in the dendrogram include the area in the Semideciduous Forest typology, as a transitional area of the Serra do Mar Ecological Corridor.