The Macaé de Cima forest reserve with 70 thousand meters, located 100 KM from Rio de Janeiro city, remaining untouched its sauvage beauty , of the atlantic forest. between rivers and giant trees, palms, and soft plants, can be found orchidae, bromeliae, and find hiddeen small animals, as snakes and monkeys,"tamanduás, cotias"and squerrels.
The Macaé de Cima reserve is object of studies of many species, animals, and plants.From 1990 to 1996 the Atlantic Forest Program of the Botanic Garden Rio de Janeiro has discovered six new species, registered another 4.699, being 126 exclusive of this Macae de Cima reserve.
The ecological reserve of Macaé de Cima, is located on the central portion of Rio de janeiro state near Nova Friburgo county, included in the continuous forest spot of the chain called Serra do Mar, being an important remaining of the primary vegetation of the Montana atlantic rainy forest, with altitudes between 880 a 1.720 meters.
based on botanic collections found in many herbariums, specially those from the research Institute of Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro, 32 new species has been discovered, as Aniba, Beilschmiedia, Cinnamomum, Cryptocarya, Endlicheria, Nectandra, Ocotea, Persea and Rhodostemonodaphne .
Big part of the reserve is located in the area of Macae river and its complements, as Flores river, running through valleys in an altitude average of 1.100 meters.
Regional weather is super humid, average temperature is 17,9ºC, january, february, and march the highest temperatures, july and august, the lowest.
The reserve represents an important reamining of the old forest which covered all chain of mountains from Serra do mar chain.There can be found are a huge slice of native vegetation and well preserved. The humid forest, with many small rivers coming from the source of Macae river, are responsible for many waterfalls between 12 meters and 40 meters high, inside a very rich forest.
Brazil's Atlantic coastal forest once extended 2400 km from Rio Grande do Norte south to the coastal area of Rio Grande do Sul .It forming a narrow fringe of forest sandwiched between the ocean and the dry uplands of the planalto. Because of its geographic isolation from other forest types, this forest has one of the highest percentages of endemism in the world: over 50% of the tree species and 92% of the amphibians are found nowhere else in the world. Thus, the assemblage of plant and animal species found here is not merely a displaced portion of the Amazonian forest, but constitutes a unique floristic province that is seriously threatened.Because of these reasons, the coastal forests have been designated one of the World's biodiversity spots.
source: Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro- part of presentation for Master intorduced to the pos-graduation coordination group (botanic) of the Nacional Museum / Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
source:Projeto Mata Atlântica Nordeste/Wm. Wayt Thomas and André M. Amorim
