The trail is subtly leading downward and you will notice both a change in the trail and in the vegetation. First, the swamp fern indicates a slight increase in moisture. The soil will progessively darken and be muddy in spots, even during the dry season. At this station you may not be able to detect much change in elevation but on the left you see Slash Pines and Saw Palmetto and, to the right more Sable Palms and Oaks. Along with the sprawling Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) you might see the uplifted branches of the Laurel Oak (Quercus laurifolia), a species that thrives in wetter environments. You have now entered the Hammock ecosystem. Hammocks are shady places where wildlife can seek refuge from afternoon heat and find many types of food. Oaks, of course, supply acorns and you may notice the ground under the oaks is disturbed by wild hogs. The plant species here have larger leaves in order to gather more light in the shady environment.
You can see a Stranger fig (Ficus aurea), on the left, growing on a Sabal Palm. The large bushy clump of leaves of this Strangler Fig shows that it germinated about 3/4 the way up the tree where it began life as an epiphyte (a plant that lives on top of another plant without soil). You can see the shoots it sent down to the ground so that it could grow roots to sustain further growth. Branches grow out in all directions, surrounding the tree trunk and merging where they touch, eventually forming a tube around the host tree's trunk. This will eventually kill trees by cutting off the growth of the trunk (it literally strangles the tree). Palms often survive because their trunks do not get larger in diameter. The Strangler Fig's flower is fertized by a small wasp which uses the flower as a nursery.