The objective of this work was to relate the occurrence of macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd. ex Martius) in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, to climatic, pedological and vegetation attributes. The State has three huge regions where macaúba occurs: Alto Paranaíba, Zona Metalúrgica, and Montes Claros. The Montes Claros region is relatively warmer and drier than the two others, although these regional macroclimatic differences do not limit the macaúba occurrence. Within those regions, nine soil sequences were selected and sampled in the landscape, totalizing 27 soil profiles, being also registered the primitive vegetation in each case. The use of soil chemical and physical attributes allowed to discriminate the sets of landscape segments (sites) with and without macaúba through the principal components analysis; the correlations with the chemical attributes were the most relevant. The macaúba occurrence followed soil areas where the natural fertility was higher and where the primitive vegetation was forest, showing that the species advances as pioneer, avoiding extreme conditions of deficiencies of nutrients and water. The surveyed data evidence that in all cases the macaúba occurrence only happened when the primitive vegetation is semideciduous forest.
Acrocomia aculeata; palmae; plant establishment; edaphic factors; environmental factors; soil fertility
