The Atlantic dry forests are a tropical dry forest ecoregion of the

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

Biome, located in eastern Brazil.

Setting

The Atlantic dry forests cover an area of , lying between the Cerrado savannas of central Brazil and the Caatinga dry shrublands of northeastern Brazil. The Atlantic dry forests stretch from northern Minas Gerais state across western Bahia state into central

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

. The Atlantic dry forests generally lie along the upper

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

of Minas Gerais and Bahia, and in the basin of the Gurguéia River in Piauí. A large enclave of Atlantic dry forest lies on the Chapada Diamantina of east-central Bahia.

Flora

The Atlantic dry forests are dense, with deciduous and semi-deciduous trees reaching up to 25 to 30 meters in height. The Barriguda Tree, '' Cavanillesia arborea'', is a dry forest tree species distinguished by its huge, bottle-shaped trunk which reaches up to 1.5 meters in diameter.

Fauna

Conservation and threats

References

External links

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Atlantic dry forest photos, including Barriguda Tree (World Wildlife Fund)
Atlantic Forest Neotropical dry broadleaf forests Ecoregions of Brazil Forests of Brazil * * . Geography of Bahia Geography of Minas Gerais Geography of Piauí {{ecoregion-stub