This study was conducted from 1990 to 1998 in four Semideciduous Seasonal Forest remnants in the mid-west region of Parana State, Brazil. There were 204 zoochoric species among trees, shrubs, climbers, herbs, epiphytes and hemiparasites life forms. Most species (74%) are trees / treelets (n= 96) and shrubs (n=55). Most fruit are green, followed by red and black, mainly due to the abundance of Solanaceae and Piperaceae. Fruit size is highly variable (2,1-360,0mm x 2,0-270,0mm), but fruits with less than 10mm predominate as did fruits with 1 to 10 small (1,1-5,0mm x 0,1-6,0mm).seeds. The State Ecological Park of Vila Rica do Espírito Santo, Fênix, was the best sampled area where we found 190 out of the 204 species included in this study and phenological data (flowering and fruiting) was collected monthly. Even though different life forms present particular flowering and fruiting patterns, as a whole the flowering peak (September/October) coincides with the onset of the rainy season, like in most of semideciduous seasonal forests, and the fruiting peak (May/June) coincides with the dry season, on the contrary of what was expected based on previous studies.
florisitic composition; phenology; zoochoric species; characteristics of the diaspores; Semideciduous Seasonal Forest; Parana State
