The peninsula of Florida is young, geologically speaking, built on sands of ancient oceans. But before a peninsula formed, a string of islands marked what is now the peninsula’s highest ridge—the Lake Wales Ridge, a backbone running nearly 150 miles from Lake County to Highlands County.
Atop these former islands, shining white quartz sands host diminutive species dating back to the Miocene, the oldest plant and animal species in peninsular Florida, in a habitat known as Florida’s desert, the scrub. The scrubs of the Lake Wales Ridge are one of North America’s most diverse biological communities, with the highest concentration of rare and endangered plants in the continental United States.
