Tropical Hardwood Hammock Ecosystem

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

Tropical hardwood hammock ecosystem.

The soils are well drained and therefore many forests have been converted into housing developments and towns. Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other everglades ecosystems. For example marshland can quickly transition to tropical hardwood hammocks with a dense canopy thin soil and no water inundation. Hardwood forests with broad leaved evergreens are called hammocks.

Tropical hardwood hammocks can occur within marshes pinelands and mangrove swamps. 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. 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. Ecosystem tropical hardwood hammocks are the climax terrestrial plant community in the florida keys.

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.