"The Everglades are a mosaic of different plant communities. For the wildflower enthusiast, pay the closest attention to the open, sunny habitats, such as pineland and wet prairies, particularly if these habitats burned the previous season," advises Roger Hammer in the introduction to this field guide to the area's wildflowers.
"Fire plays an important ecological role and many wildflowers depend upon fire to maintain their existence."
Stretching across much of southern Florida, the Everglades are not so vast as they used to be, but remain a significant and unique ecosystem. This guide covers 200 of the most common wildflowers from Everglades National Park and the Corkscrew, Big Cypress, and Fakahatchee Swamps.
Within the Everglades, Hammer identifies seven distinct habitats for flora as well as fauna: Pinelands, Tropical Hardwood Hammocks, Cypress Swamps, Freshwater Marshes, Salt Marsh, Mangrove Forests and Beach Dunes. Many of the wildflowers featured in this guide, like the Pine-Hyacinth, are endemic to one or more of these habitats and found nowhere else in the world.
Plants featured in this guide are arranged according to the most prominent color of their flower or inflorescence, from blue and purple flowers to white flowers. Color coded tabs along the top edges of the pages help quicken field identifications.
Anyone seeking to locate and identify the wild flora of the Everglades watershed will be well served by this guide, which offers detailed descriptions and color photos of each plant.
