Natural Communities
|
Jerry Cutlip, Lee County Parks and
Recreation |
The dominant habitat at Hickey’s Creek is scrubby
flatwoods composed of slash pine, myrtle oak, Chapman’s oak, sand live
oak, and dwarf live oak, with a midstory of wax myrtle, tarflower,
palmetto and hog plum. Understory plants include gopher apple,
wiregrass, shiny blueberry, lichens, reindeer moss and earth stars.
Because of lack of fire, some of the xeric scrub has reached xeric
hammock stage. The area also has much smaller areas of mesic and hydric
flatwoods. Freshwater marshes in the pine flatwoods are vegetated with
fire flag, pickerel weed, arrowhead, maidencane, cordgrass, St. John’s
wort, buttonbush and wax myrtle.
Along Hickey’s Creek, trees such as bald cypress,
water hickory, laurel oak and Carolina willow, grow with button bush,
water lettuce, spatter-dock, fire flag, redroot, pickerelweed and royal,
leather and cinnamon fern. Hickey’s Creek meanders through the site for
approximately one mile in a southeast to northwest direction. The area
adjacent to the creek is dominated by live oaks and borders the
intermittent forested wetland associated with the creek. Other plants in
this area include saw palmetto, dwarf live oak, laurel oak, hog plum and
cabbage palm, with Spanish moss, shoestring fern and golden polypody
fern. Hardwood hammocks are characterized by an overstory of cabbage
palm, slash pine, live oak and laurel oak, with saw palmetto, wax
myrtle, beautyberry, Spanish moss and other epiphytes, golden polypody
fern and shoestring fern.
