POTENTIAL UTILITY OF LYCOPHYTES AND FERNS: APPLICABILITY TO THE AMAZON CONTEXT

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Gisele
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Maciel, Sebastião, Pietrobom, Marcio Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biota Amazônia
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unifap.br/index.php/biota/article/view/1120

The use of plants for subsistence, medicinal purposes or source of income is commonly cited to higher vascular plants, however, there are little knowledge about the use of lycophytes and ferns. There are records about the medicinal use of these plants in the Amazon, but they are relegated often the ornamental character. This paper aimed to: contribute to the knowledge of lycophytes and ferns in the Brazilian Amazon by the survey of species on the Trambioca Island, Barcarena, Pará; and indicate ways of use of species founded in the literature. The botanical material was collected between 2007 and 2009, the reference material was deposited in the herbarium João Murça Pires (MG) and information regarding the usefulness of the species were obtained from different literature sources. We recorded 41 species belonging to 28 genera and 15 families, and Pteridaceae (10 spp.), Polypodiaceae (7 spp.), Hymenophyllaceae (6 spp.) and Lomariopsidaceae (5 spp.) were most representative families. Of the 41 species recorded, 20 were identified with some usefulness, the mostly used for medicinal (16) and ornamental (7) purposes, and a minority with ritualistic purpose (3) toxic properties (2) or edible (1). Despite of the little information available on the use of these plants, several applications were pointed in this study, which indicates that researches are need to investigate the assigned properties to these plants, to identify more species used and encourage the sustainable use of the same.Keywords: Amazon; Pará; ferns; uses; medicinal.