One of the simplest Florida plant communities in number of species is the Scrub. In some areas such as the Ocala National Park and Jonathan Dickinson State Park there are reasonably large areas of preserved Scrub, but farther south the complex of plants and its special animal fauna is disappearing.
Similar circumstances exist elsewhere in the State.
So much of this association of plants has been destroyed in some areas that people have difficulty learning to recognize it. At least since the last half of the 1800's, people in Florida have used the term Scrub to designate one special kind of plant association. Over most of the area south of the Lake, these are the only two pines. Cones and leaves of the long-leaf are even larger than the slash pine. Growing below the scrub pines are three common oaks.