Pond Cypress Natural Area
Size: 1,737 acres
Hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset
Location:
East side of Western Parkway (State Road 7 extension), approximately one-half mile north of Okeechobee Boulevard.
Public Use Facilities:
This site does not have a parking area or designated trails. However, the site is open for hiking, photography, wildlife viewing, and other passive recreational activities. There are no restroom facilities or drinking water on the natural area. Equestrian activities are not allowed on this site.
Site Information:
The natural area is a remnant of the pine flatwoods-wet prairie mosaic that formerly bordered the Loxahatchee Slough. It is adjacent to the Grassy Waters Preserve of the City of West Palm Beach and the Baywinds Preserve of the Baywinds residential development. The site contains seven native Florida ecosystems: mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, hydric hammock, wet prairie, dome swamp, depression marsh, and strand swamp. The lands that comprise the natural area were acquired through a variety of transactions during the period 1994-2006. The natural area is managed by Palm Beach County and is part of the Northeast Everglades Natural Area.
Plants:
Plant species observed on the site include woolysheath threeawn, pineland daisy, toothache grass, flattened pipewort, spatterdock, humped bladderwort, marsh fern, pond-cypress, swamp bay, and cabbage palm.
Wildlife:
Animal species observed on the site include whirligig beetle, slough crayfish, common buckeye, southern cricket frog, American alligator, great horned owl, roseate spoonbill, Wilson's snipe, wood duck, and North American river otter.