Tropical Hardwood Hammock The Everglades

In the deeper sloughs and marshes the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial teardrop shape.

Tropical hardwood hammock the everglades.

The everglades handbook book. Understanding the ecosystem fourth edition. If you were to look straight up you might have trouble seeing the sun and sky because of all the trees growing close together. These areas are scattered throughout the everglades and the dense vine entangled tropical hardwood hammock looks like a tiny islands dotting the marsh landscape.

Doi link for the everglades handbook. This is a familiar location for many locals. Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other everglades ecosystems. To walk into a hardwood hammock is to walk through a shady tropical forest.

And one of the easiest ones to get to and explore is right in shark valley the northern entrance of everglades national park. One of the special habitats of the everglades is the tropical hardwood hammock. A hardwood hammock is a habitat that is found on higher elevations making it like the pinelands a dry habitat. One can take a bike ride on the 15 mile loop or simply walk the main trail.

Habitat loss primarily from development has left only small patches of tropical hardwood hammocks throughout coastal south florida the everglades and the keys. Tropical hardwood hammocks. The strangler fig is a very important tree in a typical hammock but not the only tree. Understanding the ecosystem fourth edition.

Bahama strongback bourreria succulenta bay cedar suriana maritima beeftree guapira discolor bitterbush picramnia pentandra blackbead pithecellobium keyense black ironwood krugiodendron ferreum buttonwood conocarpus erectus cape sable thoroughwort chromolaena frustrata. Tropical hardwood hammocks were once found as far north as cape canaveral on florida s atlantic coast and tampa bay on the state s gulf coast. Tropical hardwood hammocks are found along both coasts of south florida as well as throughout the everglades and florida keys. In the northern portion of the everglades hammocks are dominated by trees of temperate origin including the live oak quercus virginiana and the hackberry celtis laevigata.

A fig s tree cover type or biome includes cabbage palm slash pine gumbo limbo saw palmetto poisonwood and live oak. Doi link for the everglades handbook. A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation. The typical tropical hardwood hammock in the everglades develops only in areas that are protected from fire flood and saltwater.