PLANT-AND-ANIMAL COMMUNITIES (continued)

Bayhead

Many of the tree islands in the fresh-water glades are of the type called bayhead. Growing in depressions in the limestone or from beds of peat built up on the bedrock, these plant communities contain a variety of trees, including swamp holly, redbay, sweetbay, wax myrtle, and cocoplum. Some of them, on the fringes of the brackish zone, are marked by clumps of graceful paurotis palms growing at their edges.

BAYHEAD. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Like the hardwood hammocks in the pinelands, bayheads are prevented from taking over the entire glades ecosystem by the dry-season fires that sweep the region at irregular intervals. The fires do not always affect the bayheads. A moat, formed by the dissolving action of acids from decaying plant materials on the limestone, may surround the tree island, providing some protection from fire. Wildlife concentrates in these moats during the dry season. Birds congregate here to harvest the fish, snails, and other aquatic life—and occasionally themselves fall prey to lurking alligators.