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Field Guide
to the
Hardwood Hammock Nature Trail
DRAFT Spring, 2011
By Ryan Vogel
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Introduction
The FIU Nature Preserve is a managed site, developed to reproduce communities indigenous to the Florida
Everglades. It was first dedicated a Preserve in 1978 by the FIU Administration and has since achieved various
other certifications through the National Wildlife Federation, the North American Butterfly Association, and
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
The FIU Nature Preserve is home to 248 plant species including 13 threatened species, 9 endangered species,
and 4 endemic species, endemic meaning that these species are present nowhere else in the world but southern
Florida. It also provides habitat for approximately 95 species of birds, 45 species of butterflies, 20 species of
reptiles and amphibians, and several small mammals as well.
This field guide is an attempt to present an overview of the major plant species found in a hardwood hammock
community.
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15. Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba) [old post marker-green]
These are medium sized deciduous trees that can grow to about 20 m in height and have a spreading
canopy. The copper-colored resinous bark has the aroma of turpentine and can often be seen flaking off
in strips to reveal a brilliant green under layer. This peeling superficially resembles the skin of a visitor
to Miami when they have not applied sufficient sunscreen, giving it the local name of the Tourist Tree.
1. Shortleaf Fig (Ficus citrifolia)
Although Ficus trees can be seen all throughout Miami-Dade County along roadsides and in parks, there
are only two species that are truly native to southern Florida. One of which is the notorious Strangler
Fig (Ficus aurea) and the other is the Wild Banyan Tree or Shortleaf Fig, with the main distinguishing
factor being the form of the fruit, whether they are borne sessile or on a peduncle.
The shortleaf fig is an evergreen tree with alternate, entire leaves that are from 5 – 11 cm long and 3.5 –
9 cm wide. The leaves are dark green, leathery, and smooth. What separates this tree from the closely
related strangler fig is that the fruits are borne on obviously elongated stalks, not sessile.
2. Cabbage Palm (Sabal palmetto)
For all the Floridians out there, meet your state tree, the Cabbage Palm. This is one of the most
common palms in southern Florida due to the fact that it is a common plant in pine Rockland, hardwood
hammock, and wet prairie communities. It is one of only 8 native palms in the state of Florida, and only
four of those eight exist in the Everglades.
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Cabbage palms are straight trunked trees which do not usually grow more than 18m in height. They
have unique cost palmate, fan shaped leaves (1 – 2 m long) which are deeply divided and conspicuously
V-shaped. Each leaf has numerous threads suspended from the segment margins. The lead petioles can
be up to 2 m long and the trunk will often be covered with these persistent leaf bases for years to come.
3. Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
Here is a very typical hammock species, the Live Oak. It is the southernmost reaching oak in all of the
United States, with its range extending well into the Florida Keys.
Although these trees will never grow to be that tall (20 m), they do become very widespread bulky
individuals as they age. Typically they have a short central trunk, with rough bark, which divides into
several large branches within a few meters from the ground. These trees have alternate, simple, entire,
leathery, and stiff leaves about 2 – 15 cm long and 1 – 5 cm wide. The leaves are dark green and shiny
above and pale gray and tomentose beneath.
4. Willow Bustic (Sideroxylon salicifolium)
This is a small evergreen tree that grows to about 9 m in height. They have alternate, simple, lanceolate,
entire, leaves that are 7.5 – 13 cm long and taper to a distinct petiole. The flowers and fruits arise in
clusters along the older leafless sections of branches.
Fire bush (Hamelia patens)- [No sign, facing west in the old chickee]
This is a large evergreen shrub that grows to about 5 m in height and has a wide spread. The leaves are
whorled with 3 – 7 leaves at each node. Each leaf is simple, entire, elliptic, 5 – 15 cm long, 2 – 8 cm
wide, and the leaf blades are often reflexed upward from the central vein. The petioles, veins, and
many leaves have a reddish tint, which is where it gets its name Fire bush from, along with the fact that
its tubular flowers are a bright red/orange.
8. Slash Pine (Pinus elliotti) and Coontie (Zamia pumila)
Southern Florida is home to the highly endangered and endemic pine rockland ecosystems, they are
found nowhere else in the world. A healthy pine rockland has a canopy that is dominated by slash pine,
the pines you see here above you. Due to timbering interests and development, very few large stands
of pine rockland still remain.
Slash pines are evergreen conifers with long needles (13-30 cm) arranged in fascicles of 2 or 3. The
ovulate cones are 7-16 cm long. A mature tree will grow to be 18-30 m in height and have a trunk
diameter of about 61 cm on average. Slash pine occurs as far west as Louisiana, as far north as South
Carolina and south throughout Florida, the Keys, and the Caribbean.
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Pinelands usually have a very open understory due to high occurrence of fire which eliminates many
understory species. However, due to the lack of fire here in the Preserve, much of the ecosystem has
succeeded to a tropical hardwood hammock community.
Succession is the natural replacement of one plant community by another, a process that takes place
over time with the lack of disturbance.
9. Myrsine (Myrsine cubana)
A plant adapted to both open places and shady hammocks is the myrsine. It is often a pioneer plant
invading recently burned areas. Myrsine is a hardy survivor of fires by means of stump sprouts. Along
the branch, below the leaves, are located clusters of small flowers or black fruits. These are found only
on the female plants. You may notice small, dark bumps on the stems of the myrsine. These are lobate
lac scale insects, Paratachardina lobata, native to India and Sri Lanka. These were first documented in
South Florida in 1999, and since then has been found to infest at least 39 different native plant species.
Some more susceptible species include: Cocoplum, Wax Myrtle, Red Bay, Strangler Fig, Wild Coffee, and
of course Myrsine. Currently, research into biological controls is being conducted in order to eradicate
this pest.
10. Red Bay (Persea borbonia)
Red Bay is a common tree of hammocks, but they especially like wetter sites, which is why you can find
them growing along the margins of swamp islands in the Everglades. The leaves are glossy with a pale
underside. Red Bay is related to several economically important food plants such as the avocado,
camphor, and cinnamon. Like Bay leaves used in cooking, the leaves of Red Bay emit a spicy aroma
when crushed.
This is an evergreen shrub that grows to be a small tree no larger than 20 m in height. It has alternate,
simple, entire, lanceolate, 2 – 15 cm long and 1.5 – 6 cm wide leaves that when crushed give off an
aromatic fragrance similar to that of the culinary bay leaf. The fruits are rounded dark blue drupes that
get to be 1.2 cm in diameter.
12. Solution Hole
Solution holes are formed from detritus or decaying pant material, which in turn lowers the pH of the
soil, enabling it to cut straight through limestone.
13. Bitterbush (Picramnia pentandra)
Bitterbush is a small tree and typical understory plant. It has a compound leaf with 5-9 slender pointed
leaflets. During the dry season, the leaves often turn red. The female plant will produce red berries. It
is state-listed as endangered and is endemic to Miami-Dade County.
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An evergreen shrub, which rarely reaches its full potential of only about 6 m in height. The shrub has
alternate, pinnately compound leaves that are 20 – 36 cm long, with or without terminal leaflets. The
number of leaflets ranges from 5 - 9 and can be arranged either alternately or oppositely along the
rachis. The leaflets are entire, ovate, with acuminate apices and 5 – 10 cm long and 2 – 5 cm wide.
14. Jamaican Dogwood (Piscidia piscipula)
These trees are deciduous, have twisted branches, and thin gray bark. They can grow to about 15 m tall.
They have alternate, odd-pinnately compound leaves (10 - 23 cm long), each with 5 - 11 leaflets. Each
leaflet is grayish green and 4 - 10 cm long with wavy, often revolute margins and obvious primary and
secondary veins. The fruits are light brown pods, 7.5 - 10 cm long and 2.5 - 3.7 cm wide, each with four
papery wings.
15. Wild Tamarind (Lysiloma latisiliquum)
If you look up and to your left you will see a few very large Wild Tamarind trees looming overhead. In
this more open setting, rather than deep inside a hammock, the tree develops a spreading umbrella-like
crown. This characteristic makes them excellent street and shade trees.
Beneath the lowest pair of leaflets you will find nectar glands which secrete nectar while the leaves are
young. Although, this tree only grows to about 10 or 20 m in height, they are known to develop a wide
canopy spread. The trunk has light gray or whitish bark. With alternate, bipinnately compound leaves
with an overall length from 10 – 18cm long. Each leaf having between 2 and 4 pairs of pinnae and each
of those pinna with 8 – 15 pairs of leaflets. The miniscule leaflets are 8 - 15 mm long, 3 – 5 mm wide
with an elliptic or oblong shape. The fruits are flat pods, 6 – 10 cm long, 2 – 4 cm wide, and usually
remain on the tree throughout the entire year.
West Indian Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) [No sign, look right as you are about to exit trail to the loop
path around the exterior of the Preserve)
This wood has sure created a name for itself as being solid. Although to some the Mahogany may be
viewed as a valuable piece of timber, these trees hold an important ecological role as well. For,
mahogany trees are evergreen trees which mean that they only establish once the hammock has
achieved a sufficient age and maturity.
They grow to about 15 m in height with rough, dark brown, coarsely furrowed bark. Often they have a
buttressed base as well as wide spreading branches. The leaves are alternate and even-pinnately
compound, typically with two to four pairs of leaflets per leaf. Many mahogany leaflets curve
backwards toward the base of the rachis, with one side of each leaflet seeming slightly shorter than the
other. The fruits are very large, conspicuous, upright, egg-shaped capsules. The fruits split into five
parts from the base and rely on the wind to transport their winged seeds.
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