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season. The superposition of the trees in areas low degraded creates a thick tree
cover, allowing the inside relative humidity to be high even in the driest time of year. In
this type of forest formation there is an upper tier usually with 11 to 16m high
(Rodrigues 1999).
Figure 6: Riverside Seasonal Semideciduous Forest (Floresta Estacional Semidecidual
Ribeirinha) in Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil.
Swamp Forest (Floresta Paludosa)
(Fig. 7, 8 and 9)
and Wet Fields
(Campos Úmidos)
(Fig. 10). Swamp Forests, (Leitão-Filho 1982) are those
established on hydromorphic or alluvial soils, subject to the presence of surface water
permanently. They occur in wetlands, flood plains, watersheds or river banks or lakes.
May occur in lowlands or depressions where the soil water saturation is the result of
upwelling of water from groundwater. According to Rodrigues 1999, in areas where
ground water is diffusely distributed, and persisted for a long period of time, they
develop grasslands formations - wet fields. Whereas in areas where ground water
surface flows into channels with a certain orientation, spending less time in the region,
swamp forests are developed. The soils found in this type of vegetation have high
amounts of organic material. Due its natural environmental restriction and
fragmentation, different floristic characteristics are presented, with structural and
physiognomic particularities that differentiate it from other forests.
Figure 7: Swamp Forest (Floresta Paludosa) in Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil.
