The landscape surrounding the Chapada is mostly
Caatinga, a semi-arid shrubland and savanna that covers most of northeastern Brazil's interior. On the Chapada's northeastern slope is an enclave of
tropical moist forest. Rainfall here exceeds 1000 mm annually, and the landscape is lush and green in contrast to the surrounding Caatinga. This moist forest enclave includes several forest types, mostly Atlantic semi-deciduous moist forest composed of four distinct layers. Emergent trees grow more than 30 m tall, above a canopy layer where species of legumes, mahogany, and family
Apocynaceae predominate. The moist forests are mostly similar in composition to the
Atlantic Forest, with some elements from the Amazon and Cerrado. Other plateau plant communities include
dry forest and
Cerrado subhumid savanna. Characteristic species include pequizeiro (
Caryocar coriaceum) and faveira or visgueiro (
Parkia platycephala) in the Cerrado, and jatobá (
Hymenaea courbaril) and pau-d’arco or ipê-amarelo (
Handroanthus serratifolius) in the humid forest. The
Araripe manakin (
Antilophia bokermanni), a bird only described in 1998, is
endemic to the Chapada do Araripe. == Etymology ==