Welcome to the Everglades!

There are 8 main ecosystems in the Everglades National Park. They are hardwood hammock, pinelands, mangrove, coastal lowlands, freshwater slough, freshwater marl prairie, cypress, and marine and estuarine.

• A hardwood hammock is a lot of broad-leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of a couple inches in elevation.

• Pinelands (or pine rocklands) are forests that grow on hard, rocky ground made up of limestone. It is dry, like the hardwood hammocks, because of their high elevation.

• A mangrove is a type of tree or shrub. If you say “mangrove”, you aren’t necessarily talking about a certain place, but just several of the species. Mangrove forests are mostly around rivers, and coastal channels of the edge of south Florida.

• A coastal lowland (or coastal prairie) is a strip of relatively low land that has plants that are salt-tolerant, because of how close it is to the sea. It is mostly marshy.

• A freshwater slough is relatively low land that transmits freshwater through the Everglades. They are marshy rivers, they are deep, and almost never dry up.

• A freshwater marl prairie is a marsh that borders deep sloughs, and have many different types of low-growing plants. Water can slowly drain out, so there is no rapid water drainage. A freshwater marl prairie looks a lot like a freshwater slough.

• A cypress is a type of tree. It can survive standing in water. Where the limestone underneath the water gives way, a solution hole is formed, in a circle. You will often see a cluster of cypress trees growing here.

• Marine and estuarine ecosystems are mostly in the Florida Bay. The Florida Bay is the largest body of water in the Everglades. The Florida Bay contains more than 800 square miles of marine bottom, which is mostly covered in underwater plants.