2.8 – Vegetation

The Cerrado presents itself as a vegetation mosaic composed of 11 types of vegetation, conforming to:

• Forest Savannas that include the types of vegetation that cover the tree species of a continuous canopy formation. These include riparian and gallery forest, which are found near flowing water, dry forest and Cerradão, which occur between the well drained river areas, but that are not associated with the flowing waters.
• Wooded Savannas are composed of four main types, Cerrado Stricto Sensu, cerrado park, palms and veredas. The Cerrado Stricto Sensu is characterized by the presence of brush with trees randomly distributed, in different densities, without the formation of a continuous cover. In the Cerrado Park, the occurrence of trees is concentrated in specific land areas. In the Palm, there is the marked presence of some species of palm, occurring both in well drained as well as in not well drained areas. The Veredas are characterized by the presence of a single specie of palm, the Buriti, generally in humid areas.
• Shrub Savannas include three types of vegetation: the Dirty Field, the Clean Field and the Rocky Field. The Dirty Field is characterized by the sparse presence of large and small brush. In the Clean Field, the presence of brush is insignificant and where herbaceous species dominate. The Dirty Field has a structure similar to the Clean and Dirty fields, being different by the presence of rocky outcroppings.