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FNAI
COMMUNITY: Mesic
Flatwoods
STAGE DESCRIPTION
- Overstory:
Dense overstory
of mature yellow pine (slash, pond, or longleaf) with a
canopy with greater than 75% closure and a modal tree
height range of 35 - 60 feet.
- Mid
Story: Dense
arborescent or tree-like saw palmetto with near complete
cover closure and a modal height ranging from 4 to 8 feet.
Intermixed shrubby oaks (live oak and laurel oak) with numerous
ericacious shrubs such as fetter-bushes together with tar-flower
and gallberry.
- Ground
Cover: Sparse
remnant grasses such as wire grass with equally sparse remnant
herbaceous cover typical of flatwoods.
- Duff/Litter
Layer: Dense
and very thick pine needle duff and litter. Needle
drape equally thick in mid-story woody shrubs and palmetto.
Palmetto thickets exhibiting profuse amounts of built-up
dead palmetto thatch. Significant small dead woody
debris together with large dead "punky" logs (pine).
- Soils:
Grey mineral,
typically poorly drained soils of the Myakka, Immokalee,
or other flatwoods series.
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