Diversidad florística en pastizales de la Reserva para Parque Nacional San Rafael, Paraguay

Abstract

The San Rafael area is located in the departments of Itapúa and Caazapá, with approximately 70,000 ha. The main types of plant communities observed in the park area are forests and grasslands, the latter growing on saturated and/or temporarily flooded soils. The objective of the study was to characterize the grasslands of the Kanguery biological station. For the analysis of the richness and diversity of species, sampling sites were selected taking into account the topography of the land. Six sampling plots of 100 m² each were installed. In each plot, herbarium specimens were collected and the species present were recorded. Two types of grasslands were characterized according to soil topography and floristic composition: high fields and low fields. A total of 32 Angiosperm families, 86 genera and 139 species, were identified. A floristic list of the study area is presented, detailing for each species the habit, the habitat, its geographical distribution in Paraguay and a reference specimen.