Floristic and phytosociological survey of public squares in the municipality of Dom Pedro/MA

Abstract

Urban green areas are spaces of great importance for improving the environmental quality of cities, being the subject of several studies in the academic environment. The objective of this research was to evaluate the floristic composition and the phytosociological structure of the afforestation of four urban public squares in the city of Dom Pedro/MA: José Tonico; Magalhães de Almeida; Teixeira de Freitas e Matriz. To this end, a total inventory of the floristic composition of the squares was carried out, through visual analysis, in addition to the phytosociological characterization through the analysis of the following ecological parameters: richness, Shannon-Weaver index (H '), Pielou's equability (J '), Simpson's dominance index and Jaccard similarity index. The results showed that 67 individuals were identified, distributed in 12 species and 8 botanical families.  Arecaceae and Fabaceae were the families with the highest occurrence and Ficus benjamina L. the species with the largest number of individuals (35), equivalent to 52.24% of the total registered. As for the origin, 91.7% of the species used in the afforestation of the squares are exotic, with only 8.3% native to the Brazilian territory. The Magalhães de Almeida, Teixeira de Freitas and Matriz squares were classified as having low species diversity (H’<1.5). In terms of similarity, the squares Magalhaes de Almeida and Teixeira de Freitas showed greater similarity in their floristic composition.