Caatinga

Caatinga Scrub (Caatinga)
Scrubland
Caatinga in Pernambuco, Brazil.
Country	Brazil
Part of	South America
River	São Francisco River
Area	850,000 km2 (328,187 sq mi)
Map of the Caatinga scrub as delineated by the IBAMA. Yellow line approximately encloses the Caatinga scrub distribution.Satellite image from NASA.

Caatinga (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaaˈtĩɡɐ]) is a type of desert vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (caa = forest, vegetation, tinga = white).

Caatinga is a xeric shrubland and thorn forest, which consists primarily of small, thorny trees that shed their leaves seasonally. Cacti, thick-stemmed plants, thorny brush, and arid-adapted grasses make up the ground layer. Many annual plants grow, flower, and die during the brief rainy season.

Caatinga falls entirely within earth's Tropical zone and is one of 6 major ecoregions of Brazil, including the Amazon Basin, Pantanal, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and Pampas. It covers 850,000 km², nearly 10% of Brazil's territory. It is home to 26 million people and more than 2000 species of vascular plants, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.

Caatinga covers the interior portion of northeastern Brazil bordering the Atlantic seaboard (save for a fringe of Atlantic Forest). It is located between 3°S 45°W and 17°S 35°W, extending across eight states of Brazil: Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, and parts of Minas Gerais, as well the southeasternmost point of Rio de Janeiro in Cabo Frio. The Caatinga includes several enclaves of humid tropical forest, known as the Caatinga enclaves moist forests.