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Home gardens: structure, floristic composition and environmental aspects in area of rural settlement in Brazil's Amazon forest

The structure, floristic and environmental aspects survey of home gardens was performed in the community of Santo Antonio, municipality of Santarém, Pará state, Brazil. The area studied comprises 6 home gardens, where each yard handler and 2 more former residents were heard. A total of 522 plants were sampled comprising 90 species distributed in 53 families. The family with the greatest number of species was Asteraceae. The species for food (32%) dominated the area and the most frequent ones were Persea americana, Psidium guajava, Carica papaya and Allium fistulosum. Most of species were imported plants (78%), predominantly subshrubs (40%) and trees (22%). The management of the gardens is done by a woman who is also responsible for the introduction of new species and its diversification tends to evolve over time. The Analysis of the Species Importance Coefficient indicates how these potentially commercial Euterpe oleracea, Annona muricata, Carica papaya, Psidium guajava and Carapa guianensis, which management should be favored in the agroforestry for example, optimizing the use of land, food security and aggregating income families through the sale of surplus.

settlement; familiar agriculture; Amazon forest


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