(Photo by K. Hueck, courtesy IFLA.) 
| Figure 17.—Wooded savanna of the interior highlands. 
provide a valuable wax, these two palms are exten- 
sively cultivated in northeastern Brazil. These 
palms also furnish fiber for making hats and mats 
and leaves for thatching, and the trunks are used 
for fencing, lath, and posts. 
Littoral Forest 
Growing along the coast on muddy saline soils 
subject to daily tidal inundation are extensive 
thickets of small brushy trees, predominantly Rhizo- 
_ phora species (mangrove) which throw out many 
prop roots. Most important is the red mangrove, 
whose bark contains 20 to 30 percent of tannin, a 
product used locally and in some places as an item 
of commerce. The trees are sometimes of local 
importance as sources of charcoal and, where suffi- 
_ ciently large, some structural timber. 
_ of mangrove swamps occur in the Amazon estuary, 
but neither the bark nor the wood is utilized 
extensively. 
Coconut palms, which in general prefer a moist 
soil and do not appear to suffer in ground distinctly 
; saline, are found in a strip all along the coast above 
the high water mark. This strip is said to contain 
_ one-third of all coconut palms in the world. 
Large areas 
4 FORESTS AND FOREST INDUSTRIES OF BRAZIL 
4 
Wooded Savanna 
The vast interior highlands and a part of the 
Guiana Highlands in the Territory of Rio Branco, 
a total of more than 456 million acres according to 
official statistics, are occupied by wooded savanna 
(cerrado). 
fall totals 45 to 80 inches a year, abundant during 
Over most of the interior highlands rain- 
the summer months, November to March. but scant 
in winter. 
from May to September, with June and July the 
driest months. 
A well-pronounced dry period occurs 
Typically, areas of low open woody vegetation, 
largely of the legume family, alternate with grass- 
land (fig. 17). 
of annual fires set to improve grazing. 
Much of the grassland is the result 
The general 
appearance of the wooded areas is usually ragged. 
with trees varying in height from 15 to 40 feet. 
Dense grass, evergreen trees and shrubs, and the 
absence of cacti distinguish this type from the drier 
scrub and brush. Closed forests 40 to 100 feet high, 
depending on site quality, occur along streams. 
Deciduous trees predominate in the upper story, 
but the lower story is usually composed of evergreen 
broadleaf trees. Vast areas of the wooded savanna 
are sparsely populated, and cattle raising is the base 
15 
