Tropical Hardwood Hammock Ecosystem

Ecosystem tropical hardwood hammocks are the climax terrestrial plant community in the florida keys.

Tropical hardwood hammock ecosystem.

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. These habitats function as small island ecosystems that are markedly different from their surroundings. Hardwood forests with broad leaved evergreens are called hammocks. The soils are well drained and therefore many forests have been converted into housing developments and towns.

For example marshland can quickly transition to tropical hardwood hammocks with a dense canopy thin soil and no water inundation. 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. 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 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. A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation.