The forest-cerrado transition zone in southern Amazonia: Results of the 1985 Projeto Flora Amazônica expedition to Mato Grosso

Abstract

An account of the history of collecting in the Mato Grosso is followed by a discussion of the current views on the nature of the vegetation along the transition from Amazonian forest to cerrado. The purpose of the 1985 Projeto Flora Amazônica expedition was to sample the vegetation in the transition region in northern Mato Grosso. In order to characterize the vegetation at the various localities, the identified collections were assigned to one of five broad distributional categories: Planaltine, Transitional, Amazonian, Wide-spread, or Other. In most cases, as expected, the collecting sites in the north and the west were characterized by Amazonian forest species while those in the south and east comprised mainly cerrado elements. Our collections show that the transition zone is a complex mosaic of Amazonian forest and cerrado formations. © 1989 The New York Botanical Garden.