**3. Timber importance of Fabaceae of the Amazon**

In Brazil, Fabaceae are classified into 210 genera, 160 of them represented in the Amazon [7]. In this geographical area, the biological diversity of Fabaceae is higher for tree and/or woody habit species (98 genera - 61.2% of the total) (**Table 1**). In ten of the genera listed (6.2% of the total), there are similar species with mixed growth habits, because they harbor tree plants, but also of a gaping, non-woody, shrubby and herbaceous habit. In 32.6% of the genera present in the region, there are no species with tree or woody growth.

The physiognomy of the rainforest is a mosaic of different landscapes that, in the Amazon, include the meadows and peasants, forests and lowland fields, seasonal igapós, streams, tidal forests, land fields, dense forests of soil no hydromorphic, dry or deciduous forests, transition forests, open forests of palm trees, vine forests and bamboo forests [13]. In these different physiognomies the richness in Fabaceae is numerically well represented and documented in floristic and phytosociological surveys already performed.

Although the number of woody genera is almost twice as high as non-woody ones, there is a lot of variation in the intraspecific number. The most representative woody genera are *Inga*, with 93 species, *Swartzia* with 80 and *Tachigali* with 44 species. In *Mimosa*, a genus that has mixed habit species, there are 36 species. In the flora of Brazil, some genera of Fabaceae are unique to the Amazon, among them *Eperua* and *Cynometra* (with 12 species each), *Aldina* (10 species), *Elizabetha* (9), *Crudia* and *Campsiandra* (6), *Alexa* (5), *Taralea* and *Heterostemon* (4), *Samanea*, *Hydrochorea* and *Clathrotropis* (3) and *Vouacapoua* and *Cenostigma* (two species) (Lima, 2010). There are also many monotypic genera, where some species such as *Cedrelinga cateniiformis* and *Dinizia excelsa*, which produce wood of economic value and there are also numerous genera that are represented by a single taxon.

There are other genera of Fabaceae very well represented, with diversity in species greater in the Amazonian flora, but which also has similar species in Brazilian biomes. Among them are: *Macrolobium* (34 species in the Amazon), *Ormosia* (23), *Dimorphandra* (19), *Abarema* and *Parkia* (16), *Peltogyne* (15), *Andira* (13), *Hymenolobium* (12), *Diplotropis* (9), *Dipteryx* (8), *Albizia*, *Erythrina* and *Hymenaea* (7), *Enterolobium*, *Vatairea* and *Platymiscium* (6), *Martiodendron* (3) and *Bowdichia* (2 species) [7].

Fabaceae trees of wood importance grow in native forests in economically unexplored areas and also in those altered by regional development. The size of the trees, preferred environment, trunk diameter and wood volume are diversified, as well as their technological properties and market value. In wood, there is a wide variety of coloration, density, texture, resistance to curving and other technological properties, suggesting multiple forms of utilization. For the species with the highest market value, there is an advance in the knowledge of the technological properties of wood supporting quality indicators that expand its potential for use.

In the identification of wood species in field conditions, to help identify the trees, the timber collector and parabotanists observe the morphological characteristics of the trunk, such as shape, color and texture of the bark and wood, presence or not of latex or resin and characteristic smell after small cut [14]. It is not always possible to


*Diversity and classification regarding the habit of growth for 160 Amazonian genera of Fabaceae, regarding the growth habit of the species.*
