Thanks to the temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates of Everglades National Park in southern Florida, not only is there a huge variety of plant species in the park, but also species found nowhere else on the planet. Cypress, mangroves, bromeliads, and orchids are just a few of the 164 plant species to be found at Everglades.

It all begins with the habitats, of which there are nine within the park.

Habitats

Hardwood Hammocks

Hardwood hammock habitat, Everglades National Park / David Moore via Flickr

A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad-leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation. Hammocks rarely flood because of their slight elevation advantage. The decaying vegetation generates acids that dissolve the limestone to create a natural moat protecting the plants from fire. When exploring a hammock, you’ll see tropical species such as mahogany (Swietenia mahogoni), gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba), and cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco) grow alongside the more familiar temperate species of live oak (Quercus virginiana), red maple (Acer rubum), and hackberry (Celtis laevigata).

Pinelands

Pinelands habitat, Everglades National Park / NPS-Federico Acevedo

Also known as pine rocklands, these forests often take root in the exposed limestone substrate of south Florida. Though the rugged terrain is canopied almost entirely by slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa), the understory boasts an amazingly diverse assemblage of flora, including numerous endemic species that grow only in the local area.

To survive, pinelands need fire, which clears out hardwoods blocking light to the pines. As such, many of the plants growing in pinelands are adapted to frequent fire occurrences.

Freshwater Marl Prairies

Marl prairie occurs on thin, calcitic soil that has accumulated over limestone bedrock, exposed in places as jagged, foot-tall projections called pinnacle rock, or dissolved below the surface of the ground into solution holes.

Large areas of freshwater marl prairie border the deeper sloughs of the Everglades, typified by a diverse assemblage of low-growing vegetation. The marl allows slow seepage of the water but not rapid drainage. Though the sawgrass is not as tall and the water is not as deep, freshwater marl prairies look a lot like freshwater sloughs.

Freshwater Sloughs

Wading birds feeding at Shark Valley Slough, Everglades National Park / NPS-Patty Palma

A slough is a low-lying area of land channeling water through the Everglades. These marshy rivers are relatively deep and remain flooded almost year-round, with a slow-moving current of about 100 feet (30 meters) per day.

Everglades National Park contains two distinct sloughs. On the west is the larger Shark River Slough, also known as the "River of Grass." The smaller, narrower Taylor Slough lies to the east of Shark River Slough. Both sloughs discharge into Florida Bay. These are not the only sloughs, however. A series of other sloughs flow through the Big Cypress Swamp to supply freshwater to western Florida Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands.

Cypress

Cypress dome and local denizen, Everglades National Park / NPS-Glen Gardner

Common throughout the southeastern United States, the cypress tree (Taxodium spp.) is a deciduous conifer that can survive in standing water. In the Florida Everglades these trees are often found growing in one of three distinct formations:

Cypress domes - a cluster of cypress trees growing in the shape of a dome, with larger trees in the middle and smaller trees all around.

Cypress stands - cypress trees grow in an elongate, linear shape, parallel with the flow of water.

Dwarf cypress – These stunted cypress trees may be found in areas of less-favorable growing conditions and are thinly distributed in poor soil on drier land.

Coastal Lowlands (Coastal Prairie)

Rainstorm over a sawgrass prairie, Everglades National Park / NPS-David Carillo

Located between the tidal mud flats of Florida Bay and dry land, the coastal lowlands are a well-drained region of shrubby, salt-tolerant vegetation. Periodic flooding and the onslaught of heavy winds brought on by tropical storms and hurricanes keeps these areas markedly devoid of mangroves.

Salinity levels vary greatly to create salt-tolerant plant communities characterized by succulents and other low-growing, desert-like plants that can withstand the harsh growing conditions of the coast.

Mangroves

Mangrove habitat, Everglades National Park / Daniel Hartwig via Flickr

Mangrove forests are present in the coastal channels and winding rivers around the tip of south Florida. The term "mangrove" does not signify a particular botanical relation, but rather is used to identify several species of salt-tolerant trees that thrive amidst the harsh growing conditions of the coast.

Red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), identified by their stilt-like roots, and the black (Avicennia germinans) and white mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa) thrive in tidal waters, where freshwater from the Everglades mixes with saltwater.

Fun Fact: Everglades National Park boasts the largest contiguous stand of protected mangrove forest in the western hemisphere.

Marine and Estuarine Habitats

Florida Bay, the largest body of water within Everglades National Park, contains more than 800 square miles (2,072 square kilometers) of marine bottom, much of which is covered by submerged vegetation. Seagrass and algae provide shelter and sustenance to numerous marine organisms.

The hard bottom areas of the bay are home to corals and sponges, and a wide variety of commercially and recreationally important fish, crustaceans, and mollusks thrives within the estuarine environment of the Everglades. 

Plants And Wildflowers

Everglades National Park hosts both temperate and tropical climates in which thrive representative plants and wildflowers such as bromeliads and epiphytic orchids (“air plants”). A total of 164 plant species have been listed by the State of Florida, including 39 native orchid species. Of these total plant species, 47 are threatened, 113 as endangered, and 4 as commercially exploited.

What might you see during your visit to this national park?

Bromeliads (bro-mee-lee-ads)

All bromeliads are in the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae), which includes both epiphytes (non-parasitic plants that grow on other plants) like cardinal air plant (Tillandsia fasciculata) and terrestrial species that take root in the ground, such as the pineapple (Ananas comosus).

Bromeliads along the Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park / NPS-Daniel Miguel

Most of the bromeliads you will see in Everglades National Park are in the genus Tillandsia, commonly known as air plants or wild pine. While most species of the Tillandsia genus look like the top of a pineapple, some, like Spanish moss (T. usneoides), form cascading colonies made up of thousands of interconnected individual plants. All species of Tillandsia in the park have silvery green leaves. The park also is home to two species of Catopsis and one species of Guzmania, all three of which stand out due to their soft, bright green leaves.

These iconic plants are found in almost all habitats. You will also see species of Tillandsia perched on the branches of planted trees in most of the parking areas throughout the park.

Cacti And Succulents

When you think of these plants, you might picture the desert Southwest. But cactus and succulent plants live in tropical and subtropical areas, as well, tolerant of sandy, alkaline soils and well adapted to the rocky locations that are common throughout the Everglades. You’ll see prickly pear cactus and agave and sea purslane succulents during your visit. Stay up late at night and you might be lucky enough to see Simpson's apple cactus (Harrisia simpsonii), aka "Queen of the Night,” with white blooms that only open at night and close at dawn. The sweet fragrance of this cactus attracts pollinators such as moths, bats, and other insects.

Orchids

Butterfly orchids, Everglades National Park / NPS-Sara Zenner

Orchid diversity in the Everglades is the highest of any National Park Service unit in the continental United States and can be found in a wide variety of habitats. Some orchids don’t even look like orchids, with flowers so tiny you must view them with the aid of magnification. Some orchids grow from the ground (terrestrial orchids), while other orchids (epiphytic) spend their entire lives in trees, getting their moisture and nutrients directly from air, rain, and organic debris. The most widespread of the epiphytic orchids is the butterfly orchid, while the rarest orchids are the clamshell, cowhorn, and ghost orchids.

Poaching and illegal orchid trade has led to declines in these beautiful flowers. Collection is believed to have directly led to the extirpation (complete removal or destruction) of at least three orchid species that once occurred in the park. These species losses are irreversible.

Invasive Species

Invasive species not only edge out the native wildlife at Everglades National Park, but also the native plant life. The following plants are invasive exotics in this national park:

Australian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia)
Old World Climbing Fern (Lygodium microphyllum)
Melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia)
Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius)
Seaside Mahoe (Thespesia populnea)

Invasive exotics are those species transported from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, and other parts of the world. They also include any species moved by people from one locality in the United States to a new one.

Featured In The Traveler

Progress Among The Paperbarks

On a humid spring morning in Everglades National Park, Hillary Cooley points to what looks like an ancient book, with brittle pages yellowing under the harsh subtropical sun. Closer inspection reveals that it’s actually a large hunk of a melaleuca tree, also known as the broad-leaved paperbark. Along with river birch, sycamore, and paperbark maple trees, melaleuca bark curls and peels up in layers, like a snake shedding its skin.  

As visually interesting as it is, however, the melaleuca tree is an invasive species, one of the most problematic plant species in the Everglades. First introduced to Florida from its native Australia in the late 19th century, the melaleuca was long prized as an ornamental species and gained widespread use as a shade tree and soil stabilizer. By the 1930s, officials were spreading melaleuca seeds over the Everglades by airplane, in a misguided attempt to dry up wetlands for more arable farmland. Melaleuca proliferated, eventually covering hundreds of thousands of acres in south Florida, and more than 5,000 acres [2,023.4 hectares] in the national park alone.

To read more of this Feature Story, head over to this page.

Restoring The Hole-In-The-Donut At Everglades National Park

It was an unlikely scene in a national park established to protect nature: bucket excavators, lumbering dump trucks, and bulldozers, heavy equipment more common at sprawling construction sites, were rummaging through the muck not far from the park's Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center.

They were not, however, deconstructing nature, but rather restoring it by recreating a natural environment conducive to the Muhly and sawgrass prairie near the southern end of Long Pine Key that once bordered Taylor Slough before giving way to tomato fields prior to Everglades National Park's establishment and then decades later, to a dense forest of nonnative Brazilian pepper trees.

To read more about this restoration work, head over to this page.