ABSTRACT Little Manatee River State...

ABSTRACT

Little Manatee River State Park is located in southwestern Hillsborough shire Florida. It covers 979.6 ha and includes eleven natural plant communities plus ruderal and discloseed areas. Communities range from xeric habitats as it was as scrub and scrubby flatwoods to hydric habitats as it was as floodplain forest and blackwater stream. The objective of this consideration was to develop a comprehensive listing of the taxa occurring in the park and make site-specific observations of the floristic communities. A contemplate of the park's vascular flora was actionsed between April 1998 and May 2000 The scan resulted in the documentation of 523 taxa, 329 genera, and 116 families. Three hundr and seventy-one modern additions were made to the existing documented taxa within the park. Four hundr and thirty-six (834%) of the taxa are native. Twenty-nine (55%) are endemic to Florida. Eighty-eight (168%) are exotic. Twelve of the collections are shire records. Occurrence of the newly described species Rhynchospora megaplumosa is documented. The plant communities are briefly described with emphasis forward the floristic composition of each. consequence s of the floristic survey are compiled in an annotated list.

INTRODUCTION

Little Manatee River State Park (LMRSP) is located in southwestern Hillsborough shire The western park boundary lies approximately 2 km east of Interstate 75 and U Highway 301 borders greatest in number of the eastern park boundary. The main access to the park via Lightfoot Road is approximately 3 km toward the south of Sun City Center, and 5 km southwest of Wimauma, Florida. The park is included within Sections 23-27 and 34-36 Township 32 toward the south Range 19 East, and Sections 19 and 30 Township 32 southern Range 20 East.

Little Manatee River State Park was established in 1974 as the Little Manatee River State Recreation Area with the acquisition of 6629 ha. Additional acquisitions in 1992 and 1994 originateed in a total park area of 8238 ha. An 1558 ha tract was acquired from the Hillsborough shire Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP) in 1999 [Terry Hingtgen, bys comm., Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)] The last acquisition lies in the northeast portion of the park and brought the total area to 9796 ha. The area was designated as a State Park in March, 1999 The Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Recreation and Parks, generally manages the park under a 99-year lease agreement that expires April 10 2074

Historical Land Uses

Aerial photographs dating back to 1938 exhibit evidence of anthropogenic disturbances within the park's instant boundaries including agricultural, a homestead, a fish camp, and an abandoned evolution project (FDEP 1999). Agricultural uses include pasture north of the river and the pine plantation toward the south of the river. An advanced in years homestead site is located in the xeric hammock in the northeast corner of the park. An olden fish camp along the river was remov from the southwestern corner of the estate and a failed riverfront evolution site occurs north of the river near the hiking trail.

An archaeological sample examine was conducted in April 1983 by dint of archaeologist Calvin Jones (Bureau of Archaeological Research, Florida Division of Historical Resources) (Jone 1991) Twelve prehistoric sites were discovered during the view The sites ranged in size from 100 m^sup 2^ to 9000 m^sup 2^ Jone look uponed three of the sites significant. Artifacts documented were primarily of Middle Archaic and Late Weeden Island in origin. greatest in number locations were close to tributaries emptying into the Little Manatee River.

Geology

Little Manatee River State Park lies in succession the Hawthorn Formation, which dates to the Miocene period of the Tertiary period (24-5 MYBP). This formation includes phosphatic sand, clay, marl, and sandy limestone (Brown et al. 1990) A sandy sedimentary layer 10 to 60 m thick lies above a dense layer of impermeable clay. Limestone peaces underneath the clay layer (FDEP 1999)

Topography, Hydrology and Soils

Little Manatee River State Park is included in the Southwestern Flatwoods District physiographic region (Brown et al. 1990) which is characterized at low plateaus and ridges along with flatwoods and prairies.

The park's mean elevation is ca. 6 m above mean sea on a level (msl) (FDEP 1999). Elevations north of the Little Manatee River range from ca. 20 m to ca. 1 m Elevations southward of the river range from ca. 8 m to ca. 1 m

Approximately seven km of the Little Manatee River wind by means of the park (FDEP 1999). Approximately 15240 m of river shoreline come into one's heads within the park (FDNR 1987) The scouring consequence of the river results in relatively imbue banks so that the lowland along the river is occasionally interrupted by the agency of 2.4 m to 2.7 m abrupts (FDEP 1999).

The soils within the park exhibit two general soil units. These are Myakka-Immokalee-Pomello and Myakka-Basinger-Holopaw (Doolittle et al. 1989) The former is usually flush or gently sloping, poorly to moderately well drained and has a sandy subsoil. The latter is usually nearly even poorly drained and has a sandy or loamy subsoil or is sandy over Both soil units are typical soils of flatwoods.