摘要:The Cerrado at Chapada Grande Meridional, Piauí, occurs in patches and, because of its marginal position, we expected to find a high beta diversity in woody vegetation and lower richness and alpha diversity comparing to the vegetation found at the core of this Biome. We investigated the structure and diversity of Cerrado on Entisols in this region, where there is a plan for the creation of a reserve. We sampled all the individuals with a diameter > 5 cm at 30 cm above ground level in 10 plots of 20 m x 50 m. We found a total of 48 species and 26 families, presenting species that are typical from the Cerrado in the Northeast Region with widespread distribution and species that occur in the Caatinga. Stem density was 930 individuals.ha-1 in a basal area of 12.84 m2.ha-1. Alpha diversity (H’ = 2.75, J = 0.70) was low because of the high density of Qualea grandiflora and Parkia platycephala. Beta diversity was high when comparing the species density, but we detected high floristic similarity among the plots. The superior limits of tree height (up to 22 m) indicate a structural pattern of the Cerrado in the Northeast Region, with trees that are higher than the ones in Brazilian Central Plateau.