Tampa Native Plants Guide: Tree Permits, Native Canopy and Habitat

Yes: inside Tampa city limits, removing any tree of 5 inches or more in diameter at breast height needs a City of Tampa permit unless the species is invasive (City of Tampa, Tree Resources).

Grand Trees in Tampa get the strictest handling. If one is not hazardous, its removal may need a Variance Review Board, City Council or other public process decision, and the applicant first goes through Public Notice (Tree Resources). Pruning permits for a tree of 24 inches or more are inspected by a Natural Resources Forester before release, or a City of Tampa Self-Certified Private Arborist can inspect and file the report.

The same Tampa page points residents to Tree-Mendous Tampa, which plants a free tree in the city right-of-way on request (City of Tampa). For questions on trees and permits, the city lists the Development and Growth Management Department at 813-274-3100 (City of Tampa City Planning). The Tampa Tree Protection Rules guide explains the code sections, the state exemption for risky trees and how a permit application runs.

The City of Tampa Tree Canopy Analysis counts 10,401,421 trees of 114 tree and palm species in Tampa's urban forest, with 86% native species (City of Tampa, Tree Canopy Analysis).

The Tampa study pairs satellite imagery with field crews who sample sites across the city, and it puts numbers on what the canopy does: it reduces 1004 tons of air pollutants, cuts residential air conditioning and heating costs by $6.3 million, and reduces 7.48 million cubic feet of stormwater runoff (Tree Canopy Analysis).

One caution for anyone quoting the Tampa count: the city page, checked October 14, 2026, does not show the year of the analysis or of the imagery behind it. The figure is the city's current published number, but the study year is worth confirming with City Planning before comparing it with older Tampa tree counts or reading the difference as growth.

UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County names creeping sage, frog fruit, twinflower, partridgeberry, elephant's foot and lyre-leaved sage as native groundcovers that can stand in for lawn in shade (UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County, May 2024).

For color under Tampa shade trees, the Hillsborough County Extension list adds tropical sage (Salvia coccinea), lyre-leaved sage, swamp milkweed, cardinal flower, violets, spiderwort and wild petunia, all low growing plants that do best left unmowed (Florida Native Groundcovers for Shade). For bigger gaps it suggests native ferns, the coontie cycad and wild coffee, a low native shrub that tolerates heavy shade and flowers for bees.

The Extension case for natives around Tampa Bay is about water. A $5,000 bay mini grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program let UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County build a Bay Friendly Landscaping program, and the office notes that established natives often need little to no irrigation, fertilizer or pesticide, which cuts the nutrients that reach the bay (UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County, July 2024). Its photo of native plantings on the shoreline near Ulele by the Tampa Riverwalk shows the idea in a public setting. The Extension office answers plant questions at 813-744-5519.

The same Hillsborough County Extension post lists the references a Tampa planting plan starts from: the USDA Plant Hardiness zone map (updated 2023), the Tampa Bay Estuary Program water management plan, the Florida Native Plant Society, the Atlas of Florida Plants, a list of Florida native plant nurseries and the Hillsborough County fertilizer ordinance (UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County). Natives are adapted to local soils and climate, the post says, which is the reason they need less care once established in a Tampa yard.

Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park, a 596 acre Hillsborough County park at 8001 Double Branch Rd. in Tampa, protects coastal hammocks alongside mangrove forests, salt marshes, freshwater marshes and pine flatwoods (Hillsborough County, Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park).

The county founded the Upper Tampa Bay park in 1982 for nature study and passive recreation, and its page notes live oaks and other hardwoods growing near the shallow freshwater ponds (Hillsborough County). The same page points to shell mounds built by Indigenous people that recontour the landscape across the park. The Upper Tampa Bay park is open 8 AM to 6 PM and charges $2 per vehicle for up to 8 people (Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park). The park page lists two different office numbers, (813) 855-1765 at the top and (813) 844-1765 in its paddling note, and the county page does not say which one is current.

For scrub, the nearest county example on this list is Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve at 10243 Elbow Bend Road in Riverview. The 80 acre preserve mixes hammock, scrub, creeks, ravines, shoreline and tidal marsh, with a 0.8 mile loop, a 1.3 mile loop and an Alafia River overlook a half mile from the trailhead, open sunrise to sunset (Hillsborough County, Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve). During the rainy season many of its trails hold standing water.

At 6920 East Fletcher Avenue in Tampa, Lettuce Lake Park adds hardwood hammocks, pine flatwoods, a visitors center and a native plant garden (Hillsborough County, Lettuce Lake Park). More than half of the Lettuce Lake property lies in the natural floodplain of the Hillsborough River as hardwood swamp forest, and the rest is hardwood hammock and pine flatwoods. The Coastal Hammock Habitat guide and the Scrub Habitat guide describe the plants that define each community.

ELAPP is the Hillsborough County program that buys environmentally sensitive land in the county, and the county now manages more than 63,400 acres acquired through it (Hillsborough County, ELAPP).

Its full name is the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, and its money came in three steps, two of them county referendums on bonds.

ELAPP is not a regulatory program; Hillsborough County picks land for it because of its environmental significance (ELAPP). Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve is one result: the county bought it through ELAPP in 1998 with funding help from the Florida Communities Trust (Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve). The Scrub Habitat guide covers the ELAPP scrub sites and the animals that depend on them.

Three Tampa guides sit under this hub: one on city tree rules and two on the native plant communities of the Tampa Bay area.

The split follows who is in charge. Tree permits are a City of Tampa matter (City of Tampa), while the hammock and scrub sites named on this page are Hillsborough County parks and preserves, some of them bought through ELAPP (Hillsborough County). Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the City of Tampa Tree Resources page and the Hillsborough County website.