Vassununga State Park


The Vassununga State Park is a state park in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
It preserves an area of interior Atlantic Forest and cerrado, including a huge jequitibá-rosa tree that by some accounts is the oldest tree in Brazil.

Location

The Vassununga State Park is from the city of São Paulo.
The park is on both sides of km 245 of the Rodovia Anhangüera in the municipality of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro in the northeastern region of the State of São Paulo.
It has six unconnected sections: Capão da Várzea, Capetinga Oeste, Capetinga Lesta, Praxedes, Maravilha and Pé de Gigante.
It has a total area of, and protects an area of Atlantic semi-deciduous forest and cerrado forest.

History

The region was first developed for cattle farming, then from 1850 for coffee plantations.
The landowners often maintained forest reserves to conserve soil for future plantations, preserve water sources, provide natural nurseries for coffee plants, give a source of wood for construction, maintain an area to hunt and so on.
One such area was the property of the Vassununga Sugar Mill and contained the largest and most beautiful forest of jequitibás-rosa in the region.
The sugar company went bankrupt in 1969.
The Vassununga State Park was created through state decree 52.546 of 26 October 1970 to preserve this area of forest and its fauna.

Environment

The Vassununga State Park contains one of the last remnants of Interior Atlantic Forest in the area, with semideciduous rainforest and cerrado forest and associated fauna.
There are many jequitibá-rosa trees, including the largest in the state that may be visited by the public.
The forest covers hills, cliffs and fluvial plains, creating a beautiful landscape of emergent forest in which the huge jequitibá-rosa trees stand out.
The park is in a highly fragmented landscape under considerable stress from human activities.
There are few native ecosystems and particularly high risk of erosion near the watersheds and rivers.
A strategy of connecting the fragments of the park by means of ecological corridors or stepping stones, and of ensuring sustainable use in the lands around it would be extremely useful in maintaining biodiversity.

Flora

Flora include specimens of jequitibá-rosa, guaritá, caixeta-preta, capixingui, pau-pereira, copaiba, peroba-rosa, figueira, cedro-rosa, araribá and paineira.

Birds

Birds species include the yellow-headed caracara, solitary tinamou, Amazon parrots, Muscovy duck, blue ground dove, violaceous quail-dove, chestnut-bellied seed finch, hummingbirds, toucans, pionus parrots, black-throated grosbeak, rufous-bellied thrush, forpus parrots, great kiskadee, thraupis, woodpeckers, tataupa tinamou, small-billed tinamou, partridges, seriemas, hawks and Cathartiformes.
Other birds observed in the park include the rufous-tailed jacamar, squirrel cuckoo, southern beardless tyrannulet, purple-throated euphonia, grey-headed tanager, barred antshrike, pale-breasted thrush, toco toucan, white-throated spadebill, sepia-capped flycatcher, silver-beaked tanager, planalto tyrannulet, bananaquit and red-eyed vireo.

Mammals

Mammals include maned wolf, pampas deer, cougar, capybara, robust capuchin monkey, crab-eating raccoon, bush dog, oncilla, common agouti, paca, tayra and neotropical otter.

O Patriarca

The main attraction of the park is a giant jequitibá-rosa tree in the well-preserved cerrado of the Pé de Gigante section, which takes its name from a great depression in the interior shaped like a giant's foot.
The tree, called "O Patriarca", is estimated to be 600 years old based on comparison to a neighboring jequitibá whose rings were counted and whose trunk was studied using carbon 14 dating, which gave an age of 400 years. O Patriarca is larger and has a thicker trunk, from which the age of 600 years is estimated.
It is in diameter, high and has a circumference of.
Its deepest root goes down to and its longest extends to the side.
Its gross weight has been estimated at 264 tons.
The park holds about 330 specimens of this rare and imposing tree species.