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Sandhill communities are pine forests similar to, but more xeric than pine flatwoods. They consist of an open canopy of mostly longleaf pine trees with an understory of oaks and a ground cover of grasses and herbs. Sandhills usually occur on rolling sandy soils. Their sands are deep, well-drained, and relatively sterile. Common plants include longleaf pine, turkey oak, bluejack oak, sand post oak, sparkleberry, persimmon, winged sumac, pinewoods dropseed, wire grass, Indian grass, wild buckwheat, queen's delight, yellow foxglove, bracken fern, runner oak, goats rue, partridge pea, milk pea, dollarweeds, wild indigo, gopher apple, and golden-aster (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990). Animals of interest in this habitat include gopher tortoises and Eastern indigo snakes (Prusak, personal observation).
Like pine flatwoods, sandhill communities are dependent upon frequent ground fires. Fires occur in sandhills about every 2 to 5 years. They burn through the ground vegetation reducing the number of sprouting hardwood trees but increasing the productivity of pines and grasses. Without fire, oaks would progress unchecked and eventually dominate the understory, shading out the grasses and herbs. If left unburned for many years, sandhill communities would succeed into xeric oak hammocks (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).
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