Distribution and Abundance of Flora in Limestone Rockland Pine Forests of Southeastern Florida

Loope, Lloyd; Black, David; Black, Sally; Avery, George

The pine forests of the Miami Rock Ridge of extreme southeastern Florida form a highly distinctive vegetation type with the following characteristics: (I) a rough limestone (Miami oolite) substrate with abundant crevices and solution holes, but very little soil development; (2) an understory including a variety of West Indian hardwood species; and (3) a rather rich herbaceous flora, including South Florida endemics. The single overstory tree of these forests is Pinus elliottii var. densa. These pine forests once extended from near Mahogany Hammock in the present Everglades National Park northeastward to the vicinity of North Miami. Prior to the establishment of Everglades National Park (ENP) most of the pine forest of that area (a large portion of which is known as Long Pine Key) was logged in the late 1930's and early 1940's, but has since undergone a high degree of recovery. Approximately 500 hectares (I 200 acres) of ENP pine forests were obliterated by logging, "rock plowing," and farming within the so-called "Hole-in-the-Donut," a former privately owned enclave of farmland within ENP. Approximately 8000 hectares (19,840 acres) of pine forest remain in ENP and are maintained by a fire management program which involves periodic prescribed burning of segments of the pine forest (Hofstetter, 1973; Bancroft, 1976; Everglades National Park, 1978). Outside ENP, pine forests of the Miami Rock Ridge formerly covered about 65,450 ha (161,660 acres), but have been largely removed by logging, farming, and urban expansion between 1900 and the present (Shaw, 1975).

Distribution and Abundance of Flora in Limestone Rockland Pine Forests of Southeastern Florida

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