Resumo. Soils contaminated by copper may interfere with the physiological development and establishment of plants. An alternative for the revegetation of these soils is the use of native species tolerant to copper. This study aimed to evaluate the tolerance of three native forest species to excess copper in the soil. The species used were: angico - Parapiptadenia rigida, canafistula - Peltophorum dubium and timbauva - Enterolobium contortisiliquum. The experiment was completely randomized in a 3 x 5 schedule, with three tree species and five doses of copper (0, 64, 128, 192 and 256 mg kg-1 soil) with six replicates. Plant height, shoot dry weight, length and specific root surface area and copper content in shoots and roots were determined. Canafistula and timbauva species showed storage of copper in roots and low translocation to the shoot. The shoot dry weight of timbauva and canafistula increased with small doses of copper while the shoot dry mass of angico was not affected by the doses tested. The timbauva and angico showed greater capacity for tolerance to copper contamination in the soil than did canafistula.