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The studies of flora and vegetation that have been carried out in El Retiro Natural Reserve have been limited to some of its sectors, so there is still no information about the structure of its vegetation formations and the relationship between them. Therefore, the objective of this research was to characterize the vegetation of this protected area. The following aspects were analyzed: dominant species, stratification and distribution in all vegetation types. A more detailed map of the distribution of vegetation formations in the area was obtained. Seven vegetation types were identified, of which secondary shrubland in semi-deciduous microphyllous forest ecotypes and secondary shrubland in coastal and pre-coastal shrubland ecotypes were new vegetation records for the reserve. The coastal and pre-coastal scrub and the semi-deciduous microphyllous forest were the richest vegetation formations in terms of number of species and endemics. In the analysis of biological similarity, they were the most similar.

The fire represents one of the most severe disturbance agents altering the communities’ characteristics. The objectives of the research are to determine the magnitude of the change of plants species diversity generated by a fire at the microphyll semideciduos forest of the natural reserve El Retiro, as well as their recovery capacity through the time. Forthat, two 20 x 20 m plots were established at the conserved and burned area, spaced at a distance of 20 m each other. The plots of the burned area were examined three times at the 2013 and 2014, and the results were presented in four sample stage. The variables were the richness, recruitment and relative abundance of the species, which wereanalyzed by means of abundance-range curves, similarity index and multivariate analysis. 72 species were determined, of which 17 are endemics and 16 are new record forthearea. The burned area contain the biggest species richness, emphasized for its dominance at the beginning of the recovery, the herbs Bothriochloa pertusa, Cynodondactylon and Waltheria indica,and the succulent Agave underwoodii, with a highpotential of vegetative resproute. The number and the species composition, and so the biological similarity between the burned and conserved area, were increasing considerably beginning from 12 months of monitoring, which indicate a rapid process of recovery of the burned forest, characterized mainly by the mshrubs and epiphytes dominance.