Floristic composition and structure of floodplain vegetation in the northern Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil

The Pantanal depression is located at the Brazil-Bolivia frontier in the upper Paraguay river basin. Its vegetation comprises various types of nonflooded terra firme forest and saisonally to permanently inundated herbaceous vegetation types. A collection of vascular plants in herbaceous vegetation types of the Pocone subunit includes 637 species, at least three of which are new to science. Eight major vegetation types are distinguished on seasonally inundated lowlands, these are hyperseasonal savannas, floating meadows ("batume"), swamps of rhizomatous geophytes, free floating macrophytes, vegetation of termite mounds ("murundus") as well as three communities of monodominant scrub, dominated by Combretum spp. ("pombeiro"), Licania parvifolia ("pimenteiral") or Baillonia amabilis ("sara") respectively. Little vegetation remains undisturbed due to the influence of extensive cattle breeding.