Tropical Hardwood Hammock Ecosystem

A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation.

Tropical hardwood hammock ecosystem.

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

Hardwood forests with broad leaved evergreens are called hammocks. 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. 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. Tropical hardwood hammocks can occur within marshes pinelands and mangrove swamps.

In the deeper sloughs and marshes the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial teardrop shape. Ecosystem tropical hardwood hammocks are the climax terrestrial plant community in the florida keys.