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Nevertheless campos rupestres are considered species rich and diverse vegetation formations, phytosociological
surveys from the Itacolomi State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil, are lacking in scientific literature. To close this gap,
we compared floristic composition, species richness and diversity from two sites, Lagoa Seca and Calais, both
situated within the park. Calais is moderately impacted by extensive pasture, fire, and settling activities. Both
surveys contained 15 plots of 10 x 10 m, cardinality of each species was estimated. Beside species richness, the
indexes of Shannon-Wiener, Fisher’s α, the community richness estimator Jackknife 1 and the numbers of
endemic, endangered and invasive species were compared. With 107 species, the moderately impacted Calais
showed higher species richness than Lagoa Seca (76 species). The indices of Shannon-Wiener and Fisher’s α, the
community richness estimator, as well as point diversity and spatial turnover derived from the species-area
relationship (SAR) indicated higher diversity for Calais. From Lagoa Seca, 30% of all species are endemic to the
Atlantic Rainforest or to Cerrado, and four species are endangered, not any species found in Lagoa Seca is
described as an invasive one. On the other hand, 23 species found in Calais are invasive species, only one from
all 107 species is endangered. Only 19% of all species found in Calais are endemic. Nevertheless species
richness and diversity differ between both study sites, they are exceptionally high compared to similar vegetation
formations from further regions. This justifies the declaration of the park as a local hotspot of biodiversity.
Furthermore, our results show that species richness or diversity measures are inappropriate criteria to evaluate
the intactness of campo rupestre vegetation. More weight should be put on criteria like numbers of invasive,
endemic or endangered species.