In front of impacts arising from the process of urbanization, one of the ways to facilitate the improvement of life quality of urban population is to perform the planning and the planting of trees, in private or public areas. The environmental or socio-economic benefits desired with street trees come from the top of the trees and from the covering mantle formed over the streets. In this way, the goal of this research was to analyze the distribution and dynamics of crown area classes of trees measured in two inventories held in Curitiba streets trees in 1984 and 2010. Data distribution in crown area classes, for the total data and each parcel sampled, demonstrated that there is a tendency for a descending distribution curve type, typical of multi-year and multispecific stands, both for the year 1984 as for the year 2010, with greater frequency of individuals in the crown area class 0 | | 50m². However, when data was analyzed for the main species it was found that for some of them the distribution curve changed from a descending type, in 1984, to a unimodal type, in 2010. There was greater recruitment of remaining trees in classes 50 - 100m² and 100 - 150m² and larger class removal of class 0 | | 50m². It was concluded that it was possible to understand, in part, behavioral characteristics of the species and verify signs of maturing of Curitiba streets trees when analyzed 26 years later.
Canopy cover; Shading; Tree remeasurement; Urban forest evolution
