Scrub oaks and palmettos resprout from underground stems and roots. Many of the rare species in scrub require soil disturbance for their seeds to germinate. This habitat can be found on high dunes along the ridge that runs up the middle of the Florida panhandle, and on stabilized coastal dunes. In north-central Florida, scrub is found at the rosemary area near Interlachen, or most of the sand pine areas in Ocala National Forest. The largest scrubs are Big Scrub in Ocala National Forest, which is now being managed for pulp production, and the Lake Wales Ridge scrub, which is rapidly succumbing to citrus and housing development.
Little scrub remains in Florida due to development.
They often form a matrix, with islands of sandhill, scrub, or wet prairie habitats, or baygalls, cypress domes, hammocks, and marshes scattered through. Flatwoods are flat, with acidic soils, often Spodosols with an organic horizon occasionally underlain by a clay hardpan. Drainage is very slow off of the extensive flat land. The hardpan may further impede drainage. Flatwoods may be extremely dry during low-water periods, but will flood at other seasons due to low relief and the impermeable hardpan near the soil surface.