FNAI COMMUNITY:

Prairie Hammock

STAGE DESCRIPTION

• Overstory: Closed canopy of dense mature Cabbage Palm 35 to 60 feet in height.  Intermittent hardwoods such as live oak, laurel oak and hackberry are common with pockets of red cedar where underlying shell or lime stone are near the soil surface.
• Mid Story: Dense to moderately open younger shorter cabbage palm together with younger shrub size

  elements typical of the overstory.  Significant cabbage palm thatch is found in this structural layer as a ladder fuel often trapped by shrub limbs and climbing vine arrays.

• Ground Cover: Intermittent pockets of seedling cabbage palm.  Sparse herbaceous vegetation and grasses generally open with litter dominating in cover.
• Duff/Litter Layer: Abundant cabbage palm thatch, boots and whole dead fronds make up the dominant component of this structural layer.  Oak leaves and dead and downed limbs are a minor component.
• Soils: Nearly level, somewhat poorly to poorly drained soils, coarse textured with a calcareous component.  Radenton, Hilolo, Parkwood and Winder are representative soil types.