Executive Summary Description - This physiographic area is entirely contained within Florida. The area extends from the northern edge of Lake Okeechobee north to the Coastal Plain transitional zone around the Suwanee River in northern Florida. Most of the area is xeric upland on the Central Florida ridge. Habitats there include sandhill, scrub, and xeric hammock communities.
Scrub communities are temperate or subtropical, with a less frequent occurrence of fire.
Xeric hammocks are dominated by live oak, sand live oak, laurel oak, and other oaks, with an understory of sparkleberry and saw palmetto. Other upland communities include mesic uplands, dominated by upland hardwoods or mixed hardwood pine forests. Wetlands and mangroves are also locally common to abundant in the physiographic area. Wetlands can include wet flatwoods, wet prairie, and hydric hammocks, as well as floodplain bottomland hardwood forests. Coastal uplands, such as beach dune, coastal berm, coastal grassland, and maritime hammock, are influenced by erosion, deposition, salt spray, and storms.