Native and exotic species of economically used plants in the Southern Bahia Atlantic Forest region / Espécies nativas e exóticas de plantas economicamente usadas na região de Mata Atlântica do Sul da Bahia

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is extremely devastated and little remains of its original cover, being a hot spot. Often in the remnants, species not yet described are found, which causes them to become extinct before they are known. Biodiversity inventories in this rich and threatened biome are important. The southern region of Bahia and the IFBA - Campus Ilhéus have considerable forest area, highlighting the importance of work aimed at developing biodiversity conservation and preservation activities in these areas. Thus, it is important to know the floristic composition of this biome for a better evaluation of the existing vegetation matrices, as well as access to information about the dynamics of this forest and its local importance. The samples were collected for herborization, identification and incorporation in the UESC herbarium. Subsequently, species cataloging, illustration and morphobotanical characterization were carried out. Eleven different regions were visited, 97 plants were collected, 45 species were identified, 10 plants had only the genus and family identified, 18 were classified only as family and 20 species without identification. The illustrations served as interpretative models of the morphology of these plants. All species collected belong to the group of angiosperms, with a predominance of dicots. It can be concluded that: i) the species collected were planted randomly and are fulfilling the purpose of planting for beautification and composition of cabruca; ii) the endemic landscape of the Atlantic Forest was lost by the introduction of exotic species for ornamental or medicinal use; iii) it was found that the illustration allowed a better understanding of the diversity of shapes of the collected plants; iv) the species are more herbaceous, with sizes ranging from 20 cm to 12 m in length, some plants were characterized by inflorescences and bracts, which shows an important evolutionary aspect