Tropical Hardwood Hammocks of the Interior of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve
Olmsted IC, Loope LL, Hilsenbeck CE. 1980. Tropical Hardwood Hammocks of the Interior of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. SFRC T-604. South Florida Natural Resources Center. Homestead, Florida
At the southern tip of peninsular Florida and in the Florida Keys, the vegetation includes tropical hardwood forests similar in species composition to coastal hardwood forests of most Caribbean islands. The land that this vegetation occurs on is above the level subjected to seasonal inundation. These tropical forests at their northern limit in Florida, are relatively impoverished in number of species, but as a result of higher precipitation the trees are generally more luxuriant and larger in size than their Caribbean counterparts (Robertson, 1955). Phillips (1940) pointed out that 82% of the 128 vascular plant species in one somewhat typical hammock occur also in the West Indies, while few occur in the United States vegetation of southern Florida falls within the category "Evergreen Seasonal Forest" in the classification of Beard (1944, 1955).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Olmsted, Ingrid; Loope, Lloyd; Hilsenbeck, Charles
- Date of Issue
- 1980-11
- Publisher
- South Florida Natural Resources Center
- Units
- BICY , EVER
- Keywords
- Big Cypress, everglades, hammock, SFNRCTRS