Flora in “São Marcos” of Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

considered a regionalist writer, he expresses an universal order of questions and conflicts. In the short story "São Marco" a disbeliever in witchcraft ends up blinded by João Mangalô incantations. The article proposed here wants a study of the plant species mentioned, trying in this way contribute to the understanding of the universe of literature produced by João Guimarães Rosa. The common names were identified based on dictionaries and specialist literature. The adopted classification system is APGIII. 102 plants citations were recorded, corresponding to 79 different common names, and 38 of these were identified to species level. The proportion of native species (92%) is higher than that of exotic species to the flora. The family with the highest number of citations identified to species level was Fabaceae with 13 species (c. 16%), followed by Poaceae family with six species (c. 8% of citations). The botanical genus with the highest number of species was Erythrina (Fabaceae), with four species (c. 5%). The most cited species in the story was the Bamboo (Bambusa sp.). The short story "São. Marco" reveals a great knowledge of Guimarães Rosa on the floristic composition of the Brazilian hinterland. It includes the flora attributing human characteristics to the species, giving the narrative a high poetic level without being implausible. By using mainly native Guimarães Rosa species is consistent with the nationalist discourse advocated by supporters of Brazilian modernism.