A xeric oak hammock is essentially an advanced stage of a scrub community.  It is characterized as a dense oak canopy with a ground layer consisting of oak litter, sparse palmetto and few to no grasses (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).  Its canopy contains a larger variety of tree species than many other communities (Myers, 1990).  Similar to scrub, soils in a xeric oak hammock are deep, white, well-drained sands that originated from old dune systems.  Typical plants include live oak, sand live oak, laurel oak, turkey oak, blackjack oak, red oak, sand post oak, stagger bush, saw palmetto, sparkleberry, pignut hickory, southern magnolia, red bay, American holly, wild olive, black cherry, fox grape, beautyberry, bluejack oak, Chapman's oak, persimmon, and yaupon (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).  Animals of interest that utilize this habitat include the gopher tortoise and Eastern indigo snake.

The fire interval in a xeric oak hammock is broad - 30 or more years - but its effects are great (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).  Severe weather conditions must exist for fire to exist in a hammock, such as high temperatures and low humidities (Myers, 1990).  Fires that burn through this hammock are usually high-intensity crown fires since ground vegetation is sparse and that which does exist is incombustible oak litter.  Almost all hammock fires are stand replacing.  An absence of fire in the community over a long period of time will allow the oak litter to dominate the ground cover, lessening the chance of fire even further.  Too much fire in this community would result in a succession into another community, one that supports less canopy cover and more ground vegetation.  As in scrub, fires usually do not ignite in xeric oak hammocks.  Rather, they would ignite in a neighboring community and then burn into the hammock (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, 1990).