A Physiognomic Analysis of the `Cerrado' Vegetation of Central Brasil

Abstract

The vegetation of almost the whole of Central Brasil is cerrado. It occupies more than 1 5 million km2, and runs almost uninterruptedly from the southern tropic on the borders of Paraguay nearly to the equator. Most of the states of Brasil contain some cerrado, while the huge states of Mato Grosso, Goias and Minas Gerais bear principally this vegetation type. In spite of its importance, cerrado is not very well known. This study analyses the variations in cerrado physiognomy and provides a quantitative classification which can be used in comparison with other types of vegetation. Floristics (Goodland 1970a), phytosociology and ecological relationships (Goodland 1969) are not dealt with in this paper. The name cerrado is now well established for this vegetation (Azevedo 1959a, b; Rizzini & Heringer 1962; Ferri 1963; Rizzini 1963a, b; Cole 1963; Bartholomew 1963; Labouriau 1966; Hueck 1966; Andrade Lima 1966; Eiten 1968). The nearest international equivalent is the catachrestic word savanna, used by 80 % of the forty-three authors consulted by Rizzini (1963b). As savanna has been applied to nearly every type of tropical vegetation from city parks and swamps to forests, it will not be used here (Goodland 1970b). Similarly campo (Sampaio 1938; Fullard 1962; Cosmopolitan World Atlas 1962; Feuer 1956) and grassland (sensu stricto, e.g. Pratt, Greenway & Gwynne 1966) are also inappropriate.