ALGAE: (pronounced “AL-jee”) A group of plants (singular: ALGA,
pronounced “AL-ga”), one-celled or many-celled, having chlorophyll,
without roots, and living in damp places or in water.
BRACKISH WATER: Mixed fresh and salt water. Many species of plants and
animals of marine and fresh-water habitats are adapted to life in
estuaries and coastal swamps and marshes, where the water varies greatly
in degree of salinity. Some animal species can be found in all three
habitats.
BROMELIAD: A plant of the pineapple family. Many bromeliads are air
plants, growing (not parasitically) on the trunks and branches of other
plants, or even, as in the case of “Spanish moss,” on telephone wires.
COMMUNITY: The living part of the ecosystem; an assemblage of plants and
animals living in a particular area or physical habitat. It can be as
small as a decaying log, with its variety of mosses, insect larvae,
burrowing beetles, ants, etc.; or as large as a forest of hundreds of
square miles.
DECIDUOUS TREES: Trees that shed their leaves annually. Most hardwood
trees are deciduous; some conifers, such as larches and baldcypresses,
are deciduous.
ECOLOGY: The study of the relationship of living things to one another
and to their physical environment.
ENDANGERED: A species of plant or animal that, throughout all or a
significant portion of its range, is in danger of extinction.
ENVIRONMENT: All the external conditions, such as soil, water, air, and
organisms, surrounding a living thing.
ESTIVATION: A prolonged dormant or sleeplike state that enables an
animal to survive the summer in a hot climate. As in hibernation,
breathing and heartbeat slow down, and the animal neither eats nor
drinks.
ESTUARY: The portion of a river or coastal wetland affected by the rise
and fall of the tide, containing a graded mixture of fresh and salt
water.
EVERGLADE: A tract of marshy land covered in places with tall grasses.
(In this book, “the everglades” refers to the river of grass;
“Everglades” refers to the park, which contains other habitats besides
everglades.)
EXOTIC: A foreign plant or animal that has been introduced,
intentionally or unintentionally, into a new area.
FOOD CHAIN: A series of plants and animals linked by their food
relationships, beginning with a green plant and ending with a predator.
HABITAT: The place where an organism lives; the immediate surroundings,
living and unliving, of an organism. The habitat of the pine warbler is
the pinelands; the habitat of an internal parasite of this bird is the
body of the warbler.
HAMMOCK: A dense growth of broad-leaved trees on a slightly elevated
area, not wet enough to be a swamp. In the park, hammocks are surrounded
either by pineland or by marshland (glades).
HARDWOOD TREES: Trees with broad leaves (as opposed to conebearing
trees, which have needles or scales). Most hardwood trees are deciduous,
though many in south Florida retain their leaves throughout the year.
KEY: A reef or low-lying island. In south Florida, the term “key” is
often also applied to hammocks or pinelands, which occupy areas where
the limestone is raised above the surrounding wetlands.
LIMESTONE: A sedimentary rock derived from the shells and skeletons of
animals deposited in seas, and consisting mostly of calcium carbonate.
Soluble in water having a slight degree of acidity, it is often
characterized by caverns and, in the everglades, by a very pitted
surface. The rock underlying most of the park is the Miami Oölite
(pronounced OH-uh-lite), formed during a recent glacial period. Oölitic
limestone is composed of tiny round concretions, only indirectly derived
from marine shells.
MANGROVE: Any of a group of tropical or subtropical trees, growing in
estuaries and other low-lying coastal areas, usually producing aerial
roots or prop roots and often forming dense growths over a large area.
In south Florida there are four species, belonging to three different
families.
MARSH: A wetland, salt or fresh, where few if any trees and shrubs grow,
characterized by grasses and sedges; in fresh-water marshes, cattails
are common.
MARL: In this book, used in the sense of a deposit of mixed limestone
and smaller amounts of clay; south Florida marls are sometimes called
lime muds.
PEAT: Partly decayed, moisture-absorbing plant matter accumulated in
bogs, swamps, etc.
PREDATOR: An animal that lives by capturing other animals for food.
SLOUGH: A channel of slow-moving water in coastal marshland. The Shark
River Slough and Taylor Slough are the main channels where the glades
water flows in the park. Generally remaining as reservoirs of water when
the glades dry in the rainless season, they are important to survival of
aquatic animals.
SWAMP: Wetland characterized by shrubs or trees such as maples, gums,
baldcypresses, and, in south Florida coast areas, mangroves. Fresh-water
swamps are usually not covered by water the year around.
THREATENED: A species still present in its range but that, without
significant changes in conditions, is capable of becoming endangered.
TREE ISLAND: An island of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants growing
on an elevation, in a depression, or at the same level as the
surrounding glades. Includes hammocks, willow heads, cypress heads, and
bayheads.