Plantas ornamentais da caatinga: Uma revisão

Abstract

Historically regarded as having low plant diversity, the Caatinga Biome has been surprising in terms of its representativeness and diversity of species of vascular plants, which have already passed more than 3,000 identifications. Among these species, it is natural that many have ornamental potential or are already used for this purpose without greater technical and landscape rigor. The literature on the subject already presents some representation and in it, less research can be evidenced on a single species and several others on several species, showing and consolidating the great ornamental potential to be explored. In 22 researches, more in the form of articles, 54 botanical families with species potentially, or already of ornamental use, were cited, representing 35.52% of the families already identified for the Biome. These families were divided into 136 genera, or 14.62% of those already identified for the Caatinga. A further 198 species were mentioned, which means that 6.28% of the species in the biome have ornamental potential. In terms of genera, the most prominent botanical families were Fabaceae and Bromeliaceae, followed by Apocynaceae, Bignoniaceae and Cactaceae Anacardiaceae, Arecaceae and Malvaceae, which all accounted for 49.46% of the genera diversity. With regard to species, the highlight was the Fabaceae family, followed by the Cactaceae, Convolvulaceae, Bromeliaceae, Bignoniaceae, Apocynaceae families, which accounted for 42.62% of the species diversity. The genera with more species were Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) and Mimosa and Senna (Fabaceae), followed by Pilosocereus (Cactaceae), Calliandra (Fabaceae), Allamanda (Apocynaceae), Handroanthus (Bignoniaceae), Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae) and Croton (Euphorbiaceae). With regard to the Chromatic Scheme (Color Chart) of bark, flowers and inflorescences, fruits and inflorescences as an aid to the landscape choices, 07 warm colors and 11 cold colors were found, with a predominance of flowers and inflorescences. For species with warm colors there was a greater representation of Pink, Red, Yellow and Orange Yellow shades. As for species with cool colors, the highlight was the shades of Green, White and Beige, with an emphasis also on flowers. Considering the Color Chart as an unprecedented product in the study of ornamental plants in the Caatinga, it is suggested that further research should focus on criteria such as woodiness, size, flowering time and, mainly, indications for landscape compositions such as linings, masses, tufts, corbelles , hedgerows, among others.