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For the maintenance and conservation of riparian areas it is necessary to know the layer's of the forest, like the natural regeneration of. According to that, the porpoise of this paper is to characterize the natural regeneration of a riparian forest in the city of Jaguari, central region in Rio Grande do Sul, by describing the diversity, structural parameters of natural regeneration, dispersion syndromes and ecological groups. For the sampling were plotted systematically 15 samples with size 5 × 10 m. Inside the plots were identified and measured the trees with height (h) equal or greater than 1.5 m, and diameter at breast height (DBH) less than 10 cm. Were sampled 546 individuals from 16 families and 26 species. The family Myrtaceae presented the highest number of species (6 species) and the greatest percentage of trees (54.8%). The Shannon's index was equal to 2.21 nats.ind-1 and Pielou's index was equal to 0.68, indicating low diversity and an uniform distribution among the species. Eugenia uniflora L. was the most characteristic species of natural regeneration. We observed that there is a deficit of small-sized individuals (0,3 ≤ DAP < 1,3 cm; 1,5 ≤ h < 2,5 m). The zoochoryc syndrome was most expressive in natural regeneration, being the main form to spread diaspores on place. Most species were classified as initial secondary (50%) or pioneer (26.9%), indicating that the riparian vegetation is altered, this indicate that riparian vegetation is in phase of recuperation of antropic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]