Tropical Hardwood Hammock Ecosystem

Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other everglades ecosystems.

Tropical hardwood hammock ecosystem. These habitats function as small island ecosystems that are markedly different from their surroundings. The tropical hammock ecosystem is restricted to south florida below the frost line and contains plants and animals that live in no other place in the united states. The soils are well drained and therefore many forests have been converted into housing developments and towns. Occurring on uplands 2 to 8 feet above sea level hammocks are hardwood forests consisting of a wide diversity of evergreen and semi deciduous trees and shrubs many of west indian caribbean islands origin.

For example marshland can quickly transition to tropical hardwood hammocks with a dense canopy thin soil and no water inundation. The tropical hardwood hammock is an ecosystem consisting of broad leafed trees shrubs and vines nearly all of which are native to the west indies with live oak quercus virginiana being the only significant temperate species. Hardwood forests with broad leaved evergreens are called hammocks. A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation.

Subject to thin soils and a tropical climate hardwood hammocks form a dense canopy with a tangle of shrubs and vines at the ground level and its outer edges. In the deeper sloughs and marshes the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial teardrop shape.