Food, Medicinal and Ornamental Tree Species Used in Urban Forestry in Aquidauana, MS

Abstract

Urban forestry provides several ecosystem services to the human population. These ecosystem services can be enhanced with appropriate planning and management, including the selection of species to be planted. In this study, we aimed to identify food, medicinal and/or ornamental forest species present in the street trees of a city in the Cerrado-Pantanal ecotone (Aquidauana, MS). We sampled 1280 trees, belonging to 101 species and 36 families, of which 60 are edible, 97 are medicinal and 95 are ornamental. Fabaceae constituted the main family providing the ecosystem services of provision and culture studied (20 species), followed by Bignoniaceae (8 species) and Anacardiaceae (7 species). The oiti (Moquilea tomentosa), murta-de-cheiro (Murraya paniculata) and the ficus (Ficus benjamina) were the most abundant species, together accounting for 66% of all food, medicinal and/or ornamental trees. This study demonstrates the importance of urban afforestation and aims to encourage its knowledge and appreciation. The production of quality food, the appreciation of local culture, and the involvement of the population in planting constitute specific actions aligned with urban agroecology.