Miami Native Plants Guide: Hammocks, Pine Rockland and Mangroves

The Miami native plants section has three deeper guides, on the coastal hammock, mangroves and pine rockland, and this hub answers the questions about Miami's native plant communities, where to see them, and the rules that protect them.

Most answers come from two governments. Miami-Dade County protects the rare upland forests through its Environmental Resources Management department and requires a county permit for most mangrove work (Miami-Dade Natural Forest Communities), while the City of Miami runs the parks that keep Brickell Hammock remnants (City of Miami Simpson Park).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the City of Miami parks pages, Miami-Dade County environmental pages, the National Park Service and UF/IFAS Extension Miami-Dade.

Miami's native vegetation falls into pine rocklands and tropical hardwood hammocks on some of the highest ground in the county, which Miami-Dade County protects as Natural Forest Communities (Miami-Dade County), and mangroves on the coast (NPS Biscayne).

The county says these upland communities hold a large diversity of native plants, many found only within Miami-Dade County, and that they once covered about 180,000 acres in South Florida but have been reduced to about 3,000 acres by development and agriculture (Natural Forest Communities). The reason is geography: pine rocklands and hammocks occupy some of the highest ground in the county, so before extensive drainage they were the first land developed.

The city describes tropical hardwood hammock as an upland hardwood forest found only in South Florida and along the Florida coasts, cold intolerant, with very high plant diversity and trees at the northern edge of a range that runs into the Caribbean (City of Miami). The Miami coastal hammock guide covers the coastal hammock on Virginia Key and the Bear Cut Preserve.

In Biscayne National Park the National Park Service finds three mangrove species along park shorelines and island fringes, zoned from the water inland: red mangrove, black mangrove, then white mangrove (Biscayne National Park). The Miami mangrove guide covers the shoreline in and near the city.

Two City of Miami parks keep native hammock, Simpson Rockland Hammock Preserve Park at 55 SW 17 Road and Wainwright Park at 2651 Brickell Av, and the city calls both remnants of the Brickell Hammock (Simpson Park, Wainwright Park).

At Simpson Park the city counts over 162 plant species there, at least 96 of them native, among them red stopper, spicewood, live oak, strangler fig, Jamaica dogwood, gumbo limbo, false mastic and lignum vitae, plus 15 endangered and 9 threatened species such as wild cinnamon, coffee colubrina, yellow boxwood, silver palm and Gulf licaria (City of Miami Simpson Park). Free nature walks run every Saturday and Sunday in two sessions, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., for up to 20 people per tour on a first come basis (Simpson Park), a half mile along the crushed shell path with city park naturalists (City of Miami Natural Areas).

Timing matters this month. The city has closed the park and trail at Simpson Park from October 10 to October 26, 2026, for preparations for the free annual Halloween event on October 22 and 23 from 6 to 10 p.m., and it also closes the trail in advance when weather alerts are in effect for heavy rain, strong winds or down trees, with updates at 305-533-3577 (Simpson Park notice). The same page gives the preserve's size as "over eighth acres", an apparent typo, so the city page does not give a usable acreage.

Pine rockland is a South Florida forest of slash pine that often takes root in exposed limestone (Everglades National Park), and Miami-Dade County counts it with hammock among the about 3,000 acres left of an original 180,000 or so (Natural Forest Communities).

The National Park Service describes the canopy as almost entirely South Florida slash pine, Pinus elliottii var. densa, over an understory with numerous endemic species that grow only in the local area (NPS pinelands). Fire is the condition the community depends on: it clears the faster-growing hardwoods that would shade out pine seedlings, and Everglades National Park runs prescribed burns to copy the natural fire pattern. The Miami pine rockland guide covers the remnants on the Miami side of the county.

Concerned about the loss of pinelands and other natural areas, Miami-Dade voters approved a property tax collected from 1990 to 1992 to buy and manage environmentally endangered lands (Miami-Dade EEL Program). The Environmentally Endangered Lands Program and its partners have brought more than 20,700 acres into public ownership since 1990, and the program manages another 2,800 acres of natural lands in county parks, more than 23,500 acres protected in all. Its volunteer workdays restore natural areas in Miami-Dade County, and community hours are available through them.

Inside the City of Miami, most mangrove trimming, alteration or removal needs a Miami-Dade County Class I Permit, and damaging any plant in a designated Natural Forest Community needs a county NFC removal permit (Miami-Dade Class I Permit, Natural Forest Communities).

The Class I rule covers any work in, on, over or upon tidal waters or coastal wetlands in the county or any of its municipalities, so it applies inside the City of Miami as in every other municipality, with exceptions listed in Section 24-48 of the county code (Class I Environmental Permit). A mangrove trimming permit is valid for 3 years and can be extended in 2 or 3-year increments as long as the total extension granted does not exceed 10 years, and its fee depends on the square footage proposed for trimming.

The forest rule covers small plants too. An NFC removal permit is required for any activity that removes or damages vegetation in a designated NFC, including any tree, shrub or groundcover plant, not just large trees (Natural Forest Communities). The NFC page lists the county's Environmental Resources Management department at Overtown Transit Village North, 701 NW 1st Court, Miami 33136, phone 305-372-6789, and the Class I page asks applicants to call the Coastal Resources Section at 305-372-6575 (Class I Environmental Permit).

Red mangrove stands on stilt-like prop roots at the water's edge; black mangrove prefers slightly higher, drier soil and sends up pneumatophores six or more inches tall; white mangrove grows furthest inland and sheds salt through two glands at the leaf base (NPS Biscayne mangroves).

Gardening and landscape help in Miami comes from UF/IFAS Extension Miami-Dade County, the local link to University of Florida research, at (305) 248-3311, and hands-on restoration is open through City of Miami Natural Areas clean-ups and county EEL workdays (UF/IFAS Extension Miami-Dade).

The Extension office is at 18710 SW 288th Street in Homestead, open Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and reachable at [email protected]; its home landscape programs include the Master Gardener Program and Florida Yards and Neighborhoods (UF/IFAS Extension Miami-Dade County). For a quick question, email or phone is the practical first step, since the office sits in Homestead rather than in the city.

Closer to home, the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department hosts volunteer clean-ups at three Miami natural areas, with tasks such as debris removal and removing exotic invasive plants, and runs an apprentice internship in which interns lead nature tours and help with habitat restoration and trail upkeep (City of Miami Natural Areas). Groups can book a volunteer day through the same city form. For county preserves farther from the city, the EEL Program posts its own list of workdays (Miami-Dade EEL Program).