The south Florida pine flatwoods are a

flatwoods Flatwoods, pineywoods, pine savannas and longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem are terms that refer to an ecological community in the southeastern coastal plain of North America. Flatwoods are an ecosystem maintained by wildfire or prescribed fire an ...

forest community found in central and southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. These flatwoods have open canopies of slash pine (''

Pinus elliottii ''Pinus elliottii'', commonly known as slash pine,Family, P. P. (1990). Pinus elliottii Engelm. slash pine. ''Silvics of North America: Conifers'', (654), 338. is a conifer tree native to the Southeastern United States. Slash pine is named after ...

'' var. ''densa'') above a dense understory of low shrubs and grasses in places where low-intensity fires are frequent. Where fires have been suppressed, slash pine, shrubs, and saw palmetto (''

Serenoa repens ''Serenoa repens'', commonly known as saw palmetto, is the sole species currently classified in the genus ''Serenoa''. It is a small palm, growing to a maximum height around . It is endemic to the subtropical and tropical Southeastern United S ...

'') become more dense. In addition to saw palmetto, the shrubs Appalachian tea (''

Ilex glabra ''Ilex glabra'', also known as Appalachian tea, dye-leaves, evergreen winterberry, gallberry, and inkberry, is a species of evergreen holly native to the coastal plain of eastern North America, from coastal Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Lo ...

''), coastal plain staggerbush (''

Lyonia fruticosa ''Lyonia fruticosa'', the poor-grub or coastal plain staggerbush, is a plant species native to the US states of Florida, southern Georgia and the extreme southern part of South Carolina. It grows in pine woodlands and shrub bogs at elevations le ...

''), dwarf live oak (''

Quercus minima ''Quercus minima'', the dwarf live oak or minimal oak, is a North American species of shrubs in the beech family. It is native to the southeastern United States. ''Quercus minima'' is an evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub rarely more than tall, ...

''), shiny blueberry (''

Vaccinium myrsinites ''Vaccinium myrsinites'' is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common name shiny blueberry. It is native to the southeastern United States from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. It may occur as far west as ...

''), and rosy camphorweed (''

Pluchea rosea ''Pluchea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Inuleae within the family Asteraceae. Members of this genus might be known as camphorweeds, plucheas, or less uniquely fleabanes. Some, such as ''P. carolinensis'' and ''P. odorata'', are ca ...

'') can be found in the flatwoods. Wiregrass (''

Aristida beyrichiana ''Aristida'' is a very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. ''Aristida'' is distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species found worldwide, often in arid warm ...

'') is the dominant grass. This system is similar to

Florida dry prairie The Florida dry prairie is a herbaceous upland plant community found in subtropical southern Florida. It consists of plains covered in Poaceae, grasses, low shrubs, and few widely scattered trees. It was originally found on the plains near the Kiss ...

, but has taller and denser shrub cover.

References

{{reflist Plant communities of Florida Ecoregions of Florida Flora of Florida