Hammock Park

Madison Bommelaere
11/18
Hammock Park                              
                                                                Hammock Park
                    Hammock Park in Dunedin off of alt 19 is a large park with many walking trails through the thick hammock forest. The whole park is pretty shady due to the coverage the hammock's canopy creates. Today we have learned that the hammock hardwoods are all angiosperms along with the difference between evergreens and deciduous. Evergreen trees are trees that are always green like oak and deciduous trees are trees that change color and shed their leaves during the change of seasons like maple trees. During class we also learned how the smaller plants under the canopy have adapted to the low light conditions. The plants deal with low light conditions by growing vines to climb up to the sunlight, bigger leaves to catch light ans water, and they hold on to leaves longer after the canopy thins out. We learned that hammocks almost never burn because they are green and moist, so they grow due to allelopathy which is a chemical secretion of germination and growth to the other plants. Though plant use allelopathy to expand they also grow because of succession from not being cut or burnt down. The hammocks consist of Xeric which is dry and usually have lots of moss and other epiphytes growing on them, Mesic hammock which is moist and higher in nutrients, and the Hydric hammpck which is a swampy hammock that his high in nutrients. I noticed the Xeric was very sandy which has a high drainage rate which is why its dry because water cannot collect and pool. Because hammocks rarely burn, fire is a major threat to this ecosystem for it would wipe it all out. Other threats to the ecosystem also consist of invasive plants like the air potato and human development.
Overall this is a great park but be prepared for your shoes to fill up with sand!