The
Miami Rock Ridge is a continuous
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
outcropping which formerly encompassed a large extent of far southern
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
, including portions of the
EvergladesThe Everglades are subtropical wetlands located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
ecosystemAn ecosystem is a system of interdependent organisms which share the same habitat, in an area functioning together with all of the physical factors of the environment. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs...
. The traditional base of the elevation ranges from northern
Miami-Dade CountyMiami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the county population was 2,387,170 in 2007, making it the most populous county in Florida and the ninth most populous county in the United States...
(the approximate latitude of
North Miami BeachNorth Miami Beach is a Miami suburban city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Originally named Fulford in 1926 after Captain William H. Fulford of the United States Coast Guard, the city was incorporated in 1927 as Fulford, but was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The population was...
) southward to the upper
Florida KeysThe Florida Keys are a cluster of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the...
, and it extends southwest into
Everglades National ParkEverglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida. The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, it contains the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades marshland region of southwestern Florida...
and Long Pine Key. The coastal ridge was traditionally a component of the endangered pine rocklands, which grew upon the length of the ridge.
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The
Miami Rock Ridge is a continuous
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
outcropping which formerly encompassed a large extent of far southern
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
, including portions of the
EvergladesThe Everglades are subtropical wetlands located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
ecosystemAn ecosystem is a system of interdependent organisms which share the same habitat, in an area functioning together with all of the physical factors of the environment. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs...
. The traditional base of the elevation ranges from northern
Miami-Dade CountyMiami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the county population was 2,387,170 in 2007, making it the most populous county in Florida and the ninth most populous county in the United States...
(the approximate latitude of
North Miami BeachNorth Miami Beach is a Miami suburban city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Originally named Fulford in 1926 after Captain William H. Fulford of the United States Coast Guard, the city was incorporated in 1927 as Fulford, but was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The population was...
) southward to the upper
Florida KeysThe Florida Keys are a cluster of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the...
, and it extends southwest into
Everglades National ParkEverglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida. The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, it contains the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades marshland region of southwestern Florida...
and Long Pine Key. The coastal ridge was traditionally a component of the endangered pine rocklands, which grew upon the length of the ridge. The environmental community consisted of a large and continuous expanse of
South Florida Slash PinesThe Slash Pine is a pine native to the southeast United States, from southern South Carolina west to southeastern Louisiana, and south to the Florida Keys. It is fast-growing, but not very long-lived by pine standards , and prefers humid climates and moist soil...
(Pinus elliottii var. densa), which was interspersed by subtropical hardwood hammocks. The globally imperiled pine rockland
communityIn ecology, a community is an assemblage of two or more populations of different species occupying the same geographical area. This term is used only to describe biotic factors....
, which also encompassed the Florida Keys and The Bahamas, supported numerous endemic plant species; 20 percent occur nowhere else in the world. The communities of the Miami Rock Ridge are maintained by wildfires, including natural fires caused by lightning strikes; this affects the vegetation and its associated inhabitants, thus maintaining a diverse ecosystem. The substrate—often consisting of
marlMarl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...
—and climate also affects the height of vegetation; thus a mature subtropical hammock typically does not exceed on the Miami Rock Ridge. Today the original communities have been largely removed by development, and the remaining pieces of the ecosystems are scattered into tiny fragments in extreme southeast Florida; they now encompass small fractions of their original range.