SUBSTRATE:  Droughty, sandy, low-fertility soils.

TOPOGRAPHY:   Hilly uplands.

VEGETATION:  Scrub—shrubby evergreen oaks and/or Florida rosemary; may have a sand pine or slash pine overstory; contains 13 federally listed endangered or threatened plant species. High pine—longleaf pine interspersed with deciduous oaks, especially turkey oak, with an herbaceous layer usually dominated by wiregrass.

FAUNA:  Scrub—several thousand species of arthropods; threatened Florida scrub jay, Florida scrub lizard, threatened sand and blue-tailed mole skinks, gopher tortoise, threatened Florida black bear, white-tailed deer, bobcat, gray fox, spotted skunk, raccoon.  High-pine—many broadly distributed vertebrates; endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, bobwhite quail, Sherman's fox squirrel, gopher tortoise.

PROCESSES / DYNAMICS / ABIOTIC FACTORS:  Scrub—dependent on infrequent, high-intensity fires.  High pine—dependent on frequent, low-intensity fires.

HUMAN IMPACTS:  Scrub—ecosystem rare, even prior to European settlement; after earlier losses to agriculture, now threatened primarily by real estate development.  High pine—6.5 million board feet of virgin longleaf pine removed in Florida in late 1800s and early 1900s; does not regenerate well; very few good examples of old growth longleaf pine remain.

ANIMALS AND PLANTS NATIVE TO ECOSYSTEM: List of selectable animals and plants native to the Scrub and High Pine ecosystem, with detailed descriptions and pictures on each.