Floristic richness of Fabaceae in different ecosystems in the municipality of Lábrea, Amazonas state, Brazil

Abstract

The Fabaceae are one of the richest botanical families in Amazon. However, we still lack a
knowledge about this family. We aimed to evaluate the floristic composition of Fabaceae in the
municipality of Lábrea – AM by characterizing the taxonomy and potential usage. We sampled
riparian forest, flooded forest, pastures and ruderal areas. Each plant was sampled four fertile
branches to allow taxonomical identification. For each species we gather informations about its
nitrogen fixation capacity and potential usage, according to the literature. We found 48 species
of Fabaceae within 29 genera. From this total, 46% consisted of trees and the Mimosoideae
comprised 40% of species, among them Inga calantha and 75% possess the capability to fix
nitrogen. We report 23 species with potential medicinal usage, 14 species as forage and 13
can be applied as green manure. Finally, we report high floristic richness of the Fabaceae family,
which possess also a diverse potential usage.