Everglades flooded grasslands
RESOLVE 581
The Everglades flooded grasslands occupy the southern tip of peninsular Florida in the United States, within the Neotropic realm, where a vast, slow sheet of rainwater spreads across shallow marshes from Lake Okeechobee down to Florida Bay. Famously nicknamed the "River of Grass," this rain-fed wetland is dominated by sawgrass and threaded with tree islands of red bay, pond apple, and pond cypress, along with hardwood hammocks, pinelands of South Florida slash pine, and coastal mangroves. The climate is subtropical, with roughly 70% of annual rainfall falling in a wet season from May through October, and recurrent late-summer hurricanes that periodically reshape the landscape. The region shelters the Florida panther, a rare cougar subspecies that hunts among the cypress hammock islands, yet the ecoregion falls well short of its 40% protection target, with urban sprawl, invasive species, and agricultural runoff among its chief threats. Gardeners in warm climates will recognize several signature natives here, including royal palm, cabbage palm, and saw palmetto.
About the flooded grasslands & savannas biome
Grasslands and savannas subject to seasonal or year-round flooding, including large wetland complexes. Exceptionally productive, they concentrate waterbirds and aquatic life.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.