Note:  Mesic and wet flatwoods community descriptions are provided together here and not as separate communities since their fire effects are very similar.

Mesic Flatwoods

The pine flatwoods community is the most widespread biological community in Florida.  It is characterized as a very open pine canopy and a dense ground cover of shrubs and herbs with little to no midstory vegetation.  It occurs on flat, moderately to poorly drained terrain of acidic sands overlaying an organic hardpan or clayey subsoil.  Flatwoods are usually inundated with water during the rainy season but can be very dry during the dry season.  Typical plants include longleaf pine, slash pine, wiregrass, runner oak, gallberry, saw palmetto, St. John's wort, dwarf huckleberry, fetterbush, wax myrtle, stagger bush, blueberry, gopher apple, tar flower, pennyroyal, big yellow milkwort, pawpaw, bog buttons, blackroot, false foxglove, white-topped aster, yellow-eyed grass, and cutthroat grass (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990; Abrahamson and Hartnett, 1990; Wade et al., 1980).  Animals of special interest that utilize this community type on EEL Sanctuaries include Florida scrub-jay, Eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise.  Red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCW) do persist within St. Sebastian River Buffer Preserve, which is adjacent to Micco Scrub Sanctuary.  The possibility exists of the RCW's expanding their range into Micco, if management actions were geared to that purpose (Prusak, personal observation).

Fire is one of the most essential elements in the maintenance of a Florida pine flatwoods community.  Fire keeps flatwoods from succeeding into a hardwood-dominated forest by preventing oak and palmetto shrubs from dominating the ground cover which eventually allows for the growth of large oak trees.  Fire reduces the accumulation of litter to allow for pine germination since pines require mineral soil substrate for proper germination.  Fire increases the vigor of some species including wire grass, cutthroat grass, beard grasses, and some flowering plants.  Vigor is reduced in some species due to fire exclusion, such as dwarf huckleberry and dwarf blueberry.  On the other hand, fires that occur too frequently or under conditions that are hotter than usual can damage the community by eliminating pine recruitment and therefore transform a pine flatwoods into a dry prairie.  The natural fire interval in a pine flatwoods community is every 1 to 8 years (Abrahamson and Hartnett, 1990; Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).

Wet Flatwoods

A wet pine flatwoods community is composed of an open pine canopy with little understory and a dense ground layer of hydrophytic herbs and shrubs.  Soils consist of acidic sands overlaying an organic hardpan.  Wet flatwoods drain poorly and occur on flat terrain, inundating the surface for a month or more out of the year.  Typical plants include pond pine, slash pine, sweetbay, spikerush, beakrush, sedges, dwarf wax myrtle, gallberry, titi, saw palmetto, creeping beggarweed, deer tongue, gay feather, greenbrier, bluestem, and pitcher plants (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).

Like pine flatwoods, wet pine flatwoods is a fire maintained community.  Natural fires usually occur every 2 to 10 years.  Fire reduces the accumulation of shrubs and other understory vegetation.