The Everglades provides a sanctuary, as well as a breeding and feeding ground, for many species of wading birds that depend on the climate's wet and dry cycle in order to re-pro-duce. The great egret, snowy egret and roseate spoonbill live relatively undisturbed in the Ever-glades with other rare and unique birds. 

The Everglades provides a sanctuary, as well as a breeding and feeding ground, for many species of wading birds that depend on the climate's wet and dry cycle in order to re-pro-duce. The great egret, snowy egret and roseate spoonbill live relatively undisturbed in the Ever-glades with other rare and unique birds. 

The anhinga, sometimes called the "snakebird" because it swims through the water with only its thin neck showing, also lives here. Another resident, the endangered wood stork, is the only stork native to North America. The threatened bald eagle and the few hundred remaining endangered snail kites are also at home in the Everglades. 

For years, botanists from around the world have marveled at the more than 2,000 species of plants—both tropical and temper-ate—living side by side in southern Florida. Palms and other tropical trees such as the gumbo-limbo and mahogany grow in jumbled harmony alongside willows, pines and oaks.

Sawgrass/freshwater marsh covers approximately 572,200 acres of open, flat prairie. This member of the sedge family is the most dominant plant, flowing through the park as a broad, sweeping river of grass. 

This seemingly endless plain of sharp-toothed sawgrass is interrupted only sporadically by gentle humps of hammocks, limestone outcrops on which tropical plants and trees grow. Ranging in size from a few feet to several acres in area, hammocks conceal within their cool and gloomy retreats deer, raccoons, bobcats, barred owls, hawks and marsh rabbits. Water moccasins may live in the ring of water that often collects around the hammocks.

The aptly named strangler fig drops its long aerial roots to the ground and twisting itself around its host tree's trunk. Soon it robs its host of light, water and nutrients, ultimately killing it.

In contrast, the air plant, or epiphyte, grows harmlessly on other plants, obtaining water and nutrients from the air. The most celebrated epiphytes are wild orchids. Most grow in the damp, dimly lit hammocks and cypress sloughs. The night-blooming epidendrum, with its showy white blossom and spiky leaves, is often considered to be the most beautiful and fragrant orchid in the park. 

A rare and special member of the hammock community is the liguus tree snail. Snails of each hammock have their own unique color variations—their intricate patterns range from orange and lavender to yellow and deep blue. 

Another unique environment occasionally disrupts the sawgrass plains. The rough and rocky pine-lands that remained after widespread logging are located on Long Pine Key and in nearby eastern sections of the Everglades.

At the highest, driest elevations (three to seven feet above sea level), the slash pine, or Dade County pine, is a hardy tree that can put roots down in almost no soil at all. It can grow in the hollows of limestone bed-rock, which contain peat and marl, a rich combination of decayed vegetable matter, clay and shells. 

The pinelands are also home to the saw palmetto; the moonvine, a type of morning glory; and the coontie, which is a plant resembling a palm tree. The cotton mouse, opossum, raccoon, pine warbler and reef gecko all find food and shelter within the pine-lands. 

From the southern end of the park, along the shoreline of Florida Bay, the tangled, dense mangrove forests wind their way up the western side to the 10,000 islands in a swampy maze that is part land and part water. It is here that the freshwater of Okeechobee mingles with the ocean's salt water, creating a brackish, nurturing environment. Water birds, sea turtles, fish, alligators, manatees and crocodiles find shelter and abundant food here. 

The sturdy red mangrove, found nearest the shoreline, is well supported on numerous above-ground prop roots that arch from its trunk and take hold in the muck below. Grow-ing farther inland, the black mangrove displays unusual aerial roots, pneu-matophores, which stand like pencils all around the base of the tree. They serve as respiratory organs in this marsh plant. White mangroves prefer higher, inland ground. They often form hammocks with mahogany and gumbo-limbo trees. Decomposed mangrove leaves contribute generously to the food chain, providing nourishment for bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms, which in turn, feed wildlife higher on the food chain.