Vassununga State Park
| Vassununga State Park | |
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| Parque Estadual Vassununga | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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O Patriarca: the oldest jequitibá tree.
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| Nearest city | Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, São Paulo |
| Coordinates | 21°43′19″S 47°35′33″W / 21.722005°S 47.592460°WCoordinates: 21°43′19″S 47°35′33″W / 21.722005°S 47.592460°W |
| Designation | State park |
| Created | 26 October 1970 |
The Vassununga State Park (Portuguese: Parque Estadual Vassununga) is a state park in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It preserves an area of interior Atlantic Forest and cerrado, including a huge jequitibá-rosa (Cariniana legalis) tree that by some accounts is the oldest tree in Brazil.
The Vassununga State Park is 245 kilometres (152 mi) from the city of São Paulo. The park is on both sides of km 245 of the Rodovia Anhangüera (SP-330 highway) in the municipality of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro in the northeastern region of the State of São Paulo. It has six unconnected sections: Capão da Várzea, Capetinga Oeste, Capetinga Lesta, Praxedes, Maravilha and Pé de Gigante. It has a total area of 2,071.42 hectares (5,118.6 acres), and protects an area of Atlantic semi-deciduous forest and cerrado forest.
The region was first developed for cattle farming, then from 1850 for coffee plantations. The landowners often maintained forest reserves to conserve soil for future plantations, preserve water sources, provide natural nurseries for coffee plants, give a source of wood for construction, maintain an area to hunt and so on. One such area was the property of the Vassununga Sugar Mill and contained the largest and most beautiful forest of jequitibás-rosa in the region. The sugar company went bankrupt in 1969. The Vassununga State Park was created through state decree 52.546 of 26 October 1970 to preserve this area of forest and its fauna.
The Vassununga State Park contains one of the last remnants of Interior Atlantic Forest in the area, with semideciduous rainforest and cerrado forest and associated fauna. There are many jequitibá-rosa (Cariniana legalis) trees, including the largest in the state that may be visited by the public. The forest covers hills, cliffs and fluvial plains, creating a beautiful landscape of emergent forest in which the huge jequitibá-rosa trees stand out.
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Wikipedia