FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



the sense of the natives of South Florida are depressions permanently filled 

 with water, or containing water only during the rainy season (wet-weather 

 ponds), and both kinds either with an open surface of water, or with a luxu- 

 riant growth of plants. They are designated by the plant which is most 

 prominent (dominant in the ecologic sense). 



Saw-grass ponds, where the saw-grass is found growing from 6 dm. to 3.6 

 meters (2 to 12 feet) high in either muck or marl. 



Pop-ash ponds with the pop-ash, Fraxinus caroliniana, as a low scrubby 

 tree, seldom growing higher than 8.6 meters (25 feet) in clumps of 12 or more 

 stems arising from a single root. 



Flag ponds filled with the "fireflag, " an unidentifiable plant (perhaps 

 Iris, or Orontium) from the description of a backwoodsman alone. 



Maiden-cane ponds, distinguished by the maiden-cane, Panicum hemi- 

 tomon Schult., which grows out of a bottom of white sand to a height of 6-12 

 decimeters. 



Cypress ponds where the cypress is prominent. Good drinking water may 

 be had in these ponds during the dry season at a depth of a meter or less. 



In the limited time at the disposal of the writer, one of the larger flatwoods 

 ponds about 40 ares in extent was visited near Samville. The water surface 

 of the pond was broken by clumps of the switch-grass, Panicum virgatum L. 

 The floating aquatic plants were represented by only one species, viz., Azolla 

 caroliniana Willd., while the submerged aquatics comprised Naias flexilis 

 (Willd.) Rost. & Sch. The wet muck soil of the pond margin was a sedgy 

 strip, where various species of sedges and other herbaceous plants were found 

 in association, as follows: Cyperus paniculatus Rottb., Fimbristylis autumnalis 

 (L.) R. & S., Dichromena colorata (L.) A. S. Hitchc., Iris caroliniana S. Wats., 

 Persicaria hydropiperoides (Michx.) Small (growing out in the shallow water), 

 Hypericum mutilum L., Lythrum vulneraria Ait., Eryngium Baldwinii Spreng., 

 Ptilimnium capillaceum (Michx.) Hollick, and Diodia virginiana L. The 

 hammock vegetation surrounding this pond near Samville has been described 

 under that head and need not be considered here. A comparative study of the 

 pond vegetation of South Florida would yield a rich harvest of plants and would 

 be a profitable study for some ecologically inclined botanist. Incidentally, 

 while overhauling the South Florida plants in the Herbarium of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, the following plants were listed: 



