At Florida’s southern tip, trees from to the Caribbean grow in thick, tangled jungles, and colorful tree snails creep slowly up the limbs of smooth-barked trees.
At Florida’s northern border, you’ll find trillium and columbine in bloom each spring, and flame azalea and mountain laurel nodding over the banks of clear sand-bottomed streams.
Between them, 81 different native plant communities flourish. All this in less than 400 feet of difference in elevation!
Unlike our neighbors to the north, Florida is relatively flat, with a high point of only 345 feet and a low point of sea level.
Of its 58,560 square miles, nearly 10% are covered with water. Yet just a few inches of elevation change brings about dramatic changes in Florida’s habitats.
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The Habitats
One of the greatest joys of hiking in Florida is immersing in the variety of habitats found across our vast state.
From the bluffs and ravines of the Panhandle to the tropical hammocks and coastal berms of the Keys, you won’t run out of interesting and unique places to explore.
These are general descriptions of some of the major habitats you’ll encounter while hiking in Florida. Each also provides sample hikes you can take to immerse yourself in a particular habitat.
Coastal Habitats
From sandy to swampy, Florida has a diverse array of coastal habitats along its extremely varied shorelines
Forests
Forests come in many different forms in Florida, ranging from broad and open to densely packed with vegetation.
Prairies
Florida’s prairies come in two flavors: dry and wet. Prairies are treeless, open grasslands, many of which are seasonally inundated with water.
Scrub
Florida’s desert, the scrub, forms on well-drained, loose “sugar sand” deposited along ancient shorelines, hosting Florida’s oldest plant communities.
Wetlands
Florida has numerous wetland habitats – forests, prairies, and swamps – that get flooded or seasonally inundated during the summer months or rainier years.
Explore More
For more information on Florida’s habitats, you can browse the Florida Natural Areas Inventory Natural Communities guide to obtain the full, detailed list of all 81 Florida habitats.