Pteridophytes of a forest fragment in Serra do Mascarenhas, state of Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

A survey of the Pteridophytic flora was carried out at Mata do Estado, located in the municipality of São Vicente Ferrer, in the Zona da Mata Norte, of the State of Pernambuco, which is part of the Northeastern Atlantic forest of Brazil. The fern flora richness appeared to be related to the high humidity gradient in the forest, where environmental and physical factors, such as the altitudinal level, rain precipitation and regime play an important role for the vegetation. This study contributes to widen the knowledge of the fern flora and its ecology in fragments of Mountainous Atlantic forest in the Northeast of Brazil. Seventeen families occurred in the study area, of which 15 are presented here (except to Pteridaceae and Aspleniaceae), with the most representative in number of species being Polypodiaceae (13 spp.), Dryopteridaceae (12 spp.), and Thelypteridaceae (10 spp.). This study included 38 genera and 64 species. Among these, fourteen are new references for the State of Pernambuco, and two, for the Northeastern Brazil: Pecluma hygrollletrica (Spligt.) M.G. Price and Stigmatopteris brevinervis ((Fée) Moran. In general, the species are herbaceous, hemicryptophyte, evergreen and terrestrial, living mostly in ravines along the creeks or in humid slops of the interior of the forest. The majority of the species formed populations whose individuals presented a grouped distribution, and are normally associated with other fern species, specially the terrestrial ones. Geographical distribution and ecological comments of the species are presented. The synopsis of the 93 species of the fragment is presented.