The material that is deposited throughout the year in forests has an important role in litter formation, especially in environments under stress, as occurs in the semi-arid. This study aimed to identify the inference of the vegetation cover in the production of leaf litter in tropical dry forest-Caatinga. The study was developed in the catchment area of the Alto Jaguaribe in Iguatu-CE. It was monitored two sub-basins, one with vegetation cover of caatinga in regeneration about 38 years, and another one under thinning management, maintaining the plant species with stem circumference ≤ 10 cm. Litter samples were taken monthly (January 2011 to December 2013). It was used 15 boxes of 1 m2 randomly arranged in each hydrographic watershed. The average amount of leaf litter produced plots with regenerating and thinned caatinga were of the order of 4,277.2 and 2,248.0 kg.ha1 .year-1, respectively. Litter production presented a seasonal character, with peak production immediately after the rainy season, producing respectively 62.1% and 47.9% of all litter in the months of May to September. It shows that the caatinga in higher regeneration due to output the most individuals’ ferns and most amount of species.