ABSTRACT
The Brucutu mine is an iron ore extraction area located in the so-called Iron Quadrangle (Quadrilátero Ferrífero) and exploited by the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce. The prevailing vegetation is 'campo rupestre' growing on litholic 'canga', surrounded by the Atlantic Forest biome. Collections were made in two sites during one year. Of the 117 species of angiosperms, distributed in 88 genera, belonging to 39 families, the families with greater specific richness were Asteraceae (15), Fabaceae (9) and Poaceae (9). The most important genera concerning species number were Solanum and Panicum. Three of the species found are in the Red List of Endangered Species for the state of Minas Gerais Flora: Guatteria villosissima, Lychnophora pinaster, and Cinnamomum quadrangulum. The results were compared to those of other inventories from 'campo rupestre' vegetation, using the Jaccard similarity index. The floristic similarity was low when compared to other 'campo rupestre' areas (ranging from 0.01 to 0.07). Although floristic studies in 'campo rupestre' on canga are scarce, and use different sampling efforts, the results presented here show the heterogenity of such formations and the importance of the Brucutu flora for the preservation of the biological diversity in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, a region where only few areas are currently protected.
Key words:
floristic inventory; floristic similarity; Iron Quadrangle