Hardwood forests with broad-leaved evergreens are called hammocks. The tropical hammock ecosystem is restricted to South Florida, below the frost line, and contains plants and animals that live in no other place in the United States. 

The soils are well-drained, and therefore many forests have been converted into housing developments and towns. Visit the tropical hammocks at Everglades National Park, Lignumvitae Key State Botanical Site, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, and Collier-Seminole State Park.

• For the Contest

  Each year the contest takes on two ecosystems on a four-year rotation. At this station, when tropical hammocks is one of the featured ecosystems:

  • Juniors and Intermediates will answer multiple choice/true false questions about each ecosystem.
    • To prepare, Juniors should read the ecosystem story; Intermediates should read the ecosystem description*. 
  • Intermediates will be asked multiple choice/true false questions that reference the four representative plant species for tropical hammocks:

  1) gumbo-limbo
  2) pigeon plum
  3) mastic
  4) strangler fig

  *Note: the tropical hammocks story and informational text are being revised. Updated versions will be posted for the 2024 contest.