Created 24-Sep-20
Modified 16-Aug-23
South Florida's tropical hardwood hammock community has always been small in area. Occupying high ground on the Coastal Ridge that never floods, hammocks are dominated by trees and shrubs also found in the Caribbean, Central America and even northern South America. This forest's high humidity excludes fires that might sweep the surrounding pine rockland or freshwater marshes.
Today, most hardwood hammocks are included in National, State or County preserves but have become increasingly isolated from one another by urbanization. Since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a succession of storms have removed much of the high canopy, opening the hammock floor to light and the resulting rapid growth of understory herbs, ferns, shrubs, and tree seedlings. It will take decades without such storms to rebuild the forest architecture again.
Walking into a hammock, I'm always struck by how cool and humid the air is. It's a pleasure (particularly in the dry season when the mosquitos are less abundant) to sit silently on the forest floor with my back to a tree and just be present. Photographs in this Gallery were made in Everglades National Park at Royal Palm Hammock, Mahogany Hammock, Mosier Hammock, Bear Lake Trail hammocks;
in Bill Sadowski Park, Palmetto Bay; in Castellow Hammock Park and Camp Owaissa Bauer, Homestead; Green Cay Nature Center, Boynton Beach; Tall Cypress Natural Area, Coral Springs; and Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park.
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All images © Christopher P. Migliaccio
