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.