Flora of the inselbergs of the Natural Monument Monolitos de Quixada in the central sertao of Ceara

Inselbergs are rocky outcrop islands that occur in isolated mountains and villages, such as the Natural Monument of Monolitos de Quixada in semiarid Ceara. We aims to know the floristic comparison of these inselbergs, the patterns of dispersal, and the predominant growth forms and life; as well as how the diversity of the microhabitat influences these attributes. For this study we carried out monthly collections of the vascular flora of two inselbergs of the Natural Monument Monolitos de Quixada for two years. We recognized the microhabitats: rock pools, drainage channel, crevices, clefts, rock wall, shallow depression, deep depression, forested belt and cavern. We recorded 107 species in 45 families, being that Fabaceae (13 species), Apocynaceae (11), Euphorbiaceae (06), Bromeliaceae (05) and Cactaceae (04) were most representative. Their richness and composition differs from other inselbergs. Zoochoric species (43), phanerophytes (64) and trees (45) were predominant, contrary to what was expected for semi-arid regions. We concluded that these differences are due to the intrinsic characteristics of the nine recognized microhabitats, such as amount of substrate and water availability.