FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



balls, or stem bases, are exposed (Plate II, Fig. 4). Above the crown of broad, 

 green leaves surmounts a cylindric stem 12-15 meters (40 to 50 feet) in height. 

 Associated with the palmetto in some of the hammocks along the river, we find 

 the pop-ash, Fraxinus caroliniana Mill, which reaches a height of 10 meters. 

 The water hickory, Hicoria aquatica (Michx. f.) Britt., is a slender tree some- 

 times growing to be 30 meters tall and near the river's edge it mingles with the 

 less tall palmetto. The palmetto in other hammocks is subordinated to the 

 live-oak, Quercus virginiana Mill, forming what we will describe as the Live-Oak- 

 Palmetto Hammock. Along the river, lianes are important elements of the 

 palmetto hammock, the palm trees of which are draped with an almost crushing 

 mass of vines, which include Vitis coriacea Shuttlew. with delicious berries, 

 bullace-grape, Muscadinia (Vitis) Munsoniana (Simps.) Small, pepper-vine, 

 Ampelopsis arborea (L.) Rusby ( = Cissus bipinnata (Michx.) Nutt.), Virginia- 

 creeper, Parthenocissus (Ampelopsis) quinquefolia (L.) Planch, and poison- 

 ivy, Toxicodendron (Rhus) radicans (L.) Kuntze. To add to the density 

 of growth, where every available light space seems to be filled with plants, 

 the occasional live-oaks of this forest growth, as well as the palmettos, are 

 festooned with the Florida-moss, Dendropogon (Tillandsia) usneoides (L.) 

 Raf. Perched high on the palmetto tree and lodged beneath the crown of 

 green leaves among the dead leaf-stalk stubs of the palm is the large epiphytic 

 fern, Phlebodium (Polypodium) aureum (L.) R. Br., with its rhizomes covered 

 with golden-brown hairs, or ramentae, winding in and out among the palm 

 leaf stubs. Attached to the palmetto below, this matted growth of the Phle- 

 bodium, the grass-fern, Vittaria lineata (L.) J. E. Smith, with its long, linear, 

 pendent fronds, drapes the tree with its flowing tresses of green. 



Beyond Labelle and near Citrus Center, the almost continuous river 

 hammocks are found as detached islands surrounded by prairie vegetation 

 (Plate VII, Fig. i) . Some of these hammocks are pure associations of palmetto 

 trees. Coffee Mill Hammock, so called because a coffee mill was found in its 

 midst, is such a hammock of 21 associated tall palmettos. It has become a 

 conspicuous landmark to the river-men at the east end of Bonnet Lake before 

 reaching the landing place on the canal at Citrus Center. Sugarberry Ham- 

 mock at Citrus Center is another of these detached, or island, hammocks. A 

 view from Citrus Center in a northwest direction shows the prairie assuming 

 almost a savanna-like character by the presence of a number of these palmetto 

 grooves (Plate VII, Fig. i). Palmetto hammocks are found in the big coastal 



