Phytosociological parameters, as the frequency of height and diameter classes, are commonly used to make inferences about secondary succession in given phytocenoses. Shrub and tree individuals higher than 1.5 m and with a bole length of at least 1.3 m were sampled in 2,600 m2 of semideciduous seasonal forest in the Municipal Botanical Garden of Bauru (JBMB). Information on the diameter class frequencies of five species with the highest Importance Value Index (Ocotea pulchella, Protium heptaphyllum, Copaifera langsdorffii, Platypodium elegans and Trichilia pallida) and the more numerous species' successional classification were analyzed to make inferences about the successional features of the studied community. The diameter class frequencies of savannic species Vochysia tucanorum were also studied. The information obtained allowed to consider that the forest of the JBMB is at an intermediate successional stage, and that, although it used to be periodically burnt, some of its populations are able to renew themselves.
ecotone; fire; microenvironment; secondary succession
