Natural Communities
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Kevin Main
Liatrus ohlingerae, scrub blazing star,
flowers June-September.
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A short walk on the rolling hills of the Lakes Wales
Ridge takes you through a variety of natural communities. Scrub
and sandhill grade to seasonal ponds, bayheads, and lakeshores.
The most distinctive natural community on the Lake Wales Ridge
is scrub, home to one of the rarest collections of plants and
animals in the world. Healthy scrub has the appearance of a miniature
forest with trees seldom taller than 10 feet and open patches
of sand.
Many of the tracts within the Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife
and Environmental Area are platted housing developments or have
been used for grazing, citrus or other agricultural uses and surely
would have been more intensely developed if not for state purchase.
Preservation of remaining natural areas on the Lake Wales Ridge
is critical to the Floridan aquifer, the principal source of the
state's drinking water. Rainfall percolates through the ridge's
thick, sandy soils and recharges the Floridan aquifer. The ridge
is dotted with sinkhole lakes, testament to the connection between
groundwater and surface water.
Historically, sandhill was found on the highest
ridges, characterized by an overstory of turkey oak, scrub hickory,
south Florida slash pine, and an occasional longleaf pine. Lack
of fire has resulted in dense xeric hammocks dominated by scrub
oaks and scrub hickory, sometimes with sand pine. Several endemics
exist in this habitat, including Curtis' milkweed and pigeon-wing.
These should proliferate with the return of frequent fires.
FWC has contracted with the Florida
Natural Areas Inventory to map natural communities and collect
data on vegetation structure and composition for each community
on 25 managed areas. You may view or print the Natural Communities
Map for Silver Lakes
Unit, Lake Blue,
Royce and McJunkin Units, or Highland
and Henscratch Units of Lake
Wales Ridge (pdf files).
