Habitats in Alabama

Kinds of places plants grow wild in Alabama, with the plants and wildlife also found in each. Not planting requirements.

• Cliffs, ledges and rocky summits 107 plants, 20 animals
  Cliffs, ledges, rock outcrops, talus and rocky summits where the source does not name the rock. A named rock files the place under its own glade or outcrop type instead.
• Coastal dunes and beaches 134 plants, 155 animals
  Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
• Coastal Plain hammocks 146 plants, 106 animals
  Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
• Coastal Plain seepage bogs 65 plants, 79 animals
  Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
• Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated) 35 plants, 104 animals
  Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
• Depression ponds and limesinks 128 plants, 0 animals
  Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
• Disturbed and introduced wetlands 38 plants, 180 animals
  Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
• Dry forests and woodlands 224 plants, 120 animals
  Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
• Floodplain and bottomland forests 418 plants, 146 animals
  Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
• Forest edges and thickets 209 plants, 104 animals
  Borders of forests, clearings and shrubby thickets.
• Forests and woodlands 760 plants, 0 animals
  Forest or woodland where the source does not say how moist or dry.
• Freshwater marshes 261 plants, 59 animals
  Open, herb-covered wetlands with fresh, non-tidal water.
• Freshwater tidal marshes 26 plants, 0 animals
  Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
• Glades, barrens and outcrops on limestone 191 plants, 89 animals
  Open, thin-soil openings and rock on limestone, dolomite or other lime-rich rock, including cedar glades.
• Glades, barrens and outcrops on mafic or serpentine rock 76 plants, 0 animals
  Open, thin-soil openings, outcrops and cliffs on dark, magnesium- or iron-rich rock such as serpentine, diabase or gabbro.
• Granite and other acidic rock outcrops 71 plants, 73 animals
  Bare or thin-soil rock on granite, gneiss, sandstone, quartzite and similar acidic rock, including granite flatrocks and domes.
• Hardwood and oak flatwoods 17 plants, 114 animals
  Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
• Hemlock forests 0 plants, 0 animals
  Shady, evergreen forests of eastern or Carolina hemlock, often along rocky mountain streams and in gorges.
• Maritime forests and thickets 46 plants, 74 animals
  Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
• Meadows 49 plants, 0 animals
  Open, grassy or flowery ground that is not wet, such as mountain meadows; wet meadows are separate.
• Moderately dry forests 14 plants, 94 animals
  Forests between dry and moist, often oak-hickory on slopes.
• Moist forests 337 plants, 109 animals
  Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
• Mountain balds 34 plants, 0 animals
  Treeless grassy or shrubby summits and ridges in the high mountains.
• Mountain bogs and fens 54 plants, 0 animals
  Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.
• Northern hardwood forests 8 plants, 0 animals
  High mountain forests of beech, yellow birch and sugar maple, including boulderfield forests.
• Oak savannas and openings 15 plants, 0 animals
  Open-grown oaks over grass and wildflowers, kept open by fire or thin soil; not the treeless prairies or the Coastal Plain's pine savannas.
• Pine flatwoods 214 plants, 93 animals
  Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.
• Pine savannas 346 plants, 88 animals
  Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
• Ponds, lakes and their shores 232 plants, 87 animals
  Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
• Prairies and grasslands 271 plants, 78 animals
  Open, grass-dominated places kept open by fire, grazing or thin soil, from tallgrass prairie to Piedmont prairies.
• Rich cove forests 61 plants, 0 animals
  Sheltered, moist mountain hollows and lower slopes with deep, fertile soil.
• Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground 1485 plants, 152 animals
  Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
• Salt and brackish marshes 48 plants, 115 animals
  Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
• Sandhills 309 plants, 0 animals
  Dry, deep-sand ridges with longleaf pine and turkey oak, kept open by fire.
• Seeps and springs 205 plants, 0 animals
  Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.
• Sinkhole ponds 11 plants, 0 animals
  Ponds and wet depressions in limestone sinkholes of the interior valleys and plateaus (karst), separate from the Coastal Plain's limesink ponds.
• Sounds, bays and tidal flats 11 plants, 87 animals
  Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
• Streams, rivers and their banks 322 plants, 135 animals
  Flowing water and its banks, bars and rocky shoals.
• Swamps 327 plants, 142 animals
  Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.
• Tree plantations and managed pine 2 plants, 98 animals
  Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
• Wet meadows 77 plants, 0 animals
  Open, wet, grassy or sedgy ground that is not a bog.