Phenology of woody species in tropical coastal vegetation, northeastern Brazil

The study was carried out in the Private Nature Reservation Nossa Senhora do Outeiro de Maracaípe, located along the southern coast of Pernambuco state, in the Nossa Senhora do Ó District (08°31′48″S and 35°01′05″W), Ipojuca municipality, northeastern Brazil. The reserve has 76.20 ha of tropical coastal vegetation (Restinga forest). The aims were to determine the existence of seasonal phenological pattern of woody species as a function of rainfall. During the study period, the rainfall was 26.8 mm in the driest month (November 2003) and 538.9 in the wettest (June 2004). Observations on flowering, fruiting, leaf fall, and leaf flushing were recorded monthly, during 16 months (April 2003 to July 2004). All species with a ground level perimeter >10 cm and represented by at least three individuals, were selected and tagged. A total of 51 species represented by 156 individuals were recorded. Leaf flushing and leaf fall did not have seasonal variation and the species continued to gain and loose leaves during the dry (August to February) and rainy (March to July) seasons. Flowering, when evaluated by the Fournier's percentage, varied between 1.9% and 20.2%, with maximum intensity in December 2003 (16.4%) and January 2004 (20.2%). Likewise, fruiting varied between 3.8% and 21.4% with the highest percentages in February (17.2%) and March (21.4%) 2004. The analysis comparing reproductive phenological patterns with monthly rainfall did not show a significant correlation, which may suggest investigations concerning other factors, including biotic ones, as pollination and/or dispersal modes, which can be influencing reproductive events of plants in the studied Restinga forest.