Wet Prairie/Slough

South Florida Water Management District

The wet prairies of the Everglades are treeless plains with sparse to dense ground cover of grasses and herbs, including maidencane, spikerush, and beakrush. Other typical plants include swamp lily, arrowhead, pickerel weed, ludwigia, and bladderwort. Wet prairies occur on low, relatively flat, poorly drained terrain. They are saturated approximately 90 percent of the year and burn every two to four years.

Sloughs within the Everglades are broad shallow channels inundated with flowing water except during extreme droughts. They often correspond with linear depressions in underlying bedrock. Vegetation consists of large emergent herbs and floating aquatic plants such as white water lily, floating hearts, and spadderdock. During the rainy season sloughs and wet prairies are habitat for a wide variety of fish species as well as snails, crayfish, and other invertebrates. As water levels decline during the dry season, fish and invertebrates move to deep water sloughs for refuge. This high concentration of prey during the dry season is a critical source of food for the endangered wood stork and other wading birds. Wet prairies and sloughs are threatened by the spread of melaleuca and cattails. Stands of chemically treated dead melaleuca can be observed on the north side of I-75 from mile marker 19 to mile marker 23.

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