Rapid floristic inventories in localities of Calixto García municipality, Holguín province, Cuba

Abstract

The municipality Calixto García is located in the western part of the Holguín province, in a region mostly used for agriculture and cattle, of which there are not published references about the flora of localities still holding patches with seminatural vegetation, a situation that motivated to carry out this investigation. Four localities were explored (entre Pozo Viejo y Cupey, entre La Caridad y Los Almácigos, Las Calabazas y Manantiales), in which floristic checklists were made and specimens of 24 taxa were collected. 162 taxa belonging to 140 genera and 55 families were recorded; among them there are 26 endemics, eight threatened and 13 exotic considered invasive (nine) or potentially invasive (four). The conservation status of the localities is acceptable, taking into account the persisting floristic values. The observed main threats, are fragmentation, illegal logging and the presence of invasive exotic species, among which the most abundant are Bromelia pinguin, Dichrostachys cinerea, Leucaena leucocephala and Viguiera dentata.