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Florida Everglade Ecosystems

The Florida Everglade ecosystems in South Florida encompass the middle of the Florida peninsula to Florida Bay. The Everglades is composed of diverse ecosystems, including cypress, prairies, hardwood hammocks, pinelands and estuaries. These special places provide unique conditions for a large number and variety of plants and animals, many found nowhere else on earth. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated the Everglades a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. UNESCO describes the Everglades ecosystems as "a river of grass flowing imperceptibly from the hinterland into the sea."

Cypress
- Cypress are adapted to growing in standing water.
  
  Cypress trees are conifers that can survive in standing water, which at times reaches 3 feet deep. They grow in holes in the limestone, parallel to flowing water, and some dwarf species grow in poor soil on drier land. Related to the redwood and sequoia, cypress supports plants such as ferns, Spanish moss and orchids. These trees provide shelter for many Everglades' mammals and birds.
Prairies
- The American alligator lives in the sawgrass prairie.
  
  This ecosystem includes both coastal and sawgrass prairies. Coastal prairies are between Florida Bay's tidal flats and dry land. Salt-tolerant plants, including succulents, grow here. Sawgrass prairies are composed of a short grass that grows in 2 feet of water during the wet summer season. The water contains a rich mixture of algae, bacteria and microbes that are a key food source for fish and tadpoles. Frogs, wading birds, mammals and reptiles such as the American alligator live in the sawgrass prairie ecosystem.
Hardwood Hammocks
- Small stands of mature hardwood forests are found in areas of the Everglades. These stands of oak, pine, West Indian mahogany, gumbo, red maple, royal palm and cabbage palm trees, called hammocks, grow in slightly elevated areas. Some unusual species of orchids, tropical ferns and bromeliads live in this humid ecosystem. Some of the many animals that live in the hardwood hammocks ecosystem include raccoons, opossums, mink, gray fox, Florida panther and white-tailed deer.
Pinelands
- Open, sunny areas of relatively high elevation in the midst of the sawgrass prairie make up the pinelands ecosystem. Composed of slash pine, this ecosystem is home to panthers, indigo, coral, red rat and king snakes, diamondback rattlesnakes, woodpeckers and black bears. Other flora in this unique environment include moonvine, a type of morning glory, and coontie, a plant that resembles a palm tree.
Estuaries
- West Indian manatees are found in the Florida Bay estuary.
  
  More than 850 square miles of the Everglades is made up of the Florida Bay estuary, where salt water from the ocean meets the fresh flowing water from the land. The shallow, cloudy water is home to bonefish, snook, seatrout and tarpon; and the seagrasses and mangroves shelter a wide and unique variety of marine species. Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, green sea turtles, American crocodiles and West Indian manatees make their homes in this ecosystem.

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