The Lake Wales Ridge, rising at most, about 300 feet, has one of the highest concentrations of threatened and endangered plants and animals in the United States. The Lake Wales Ridge is home for 20 species of plants and 6 animal species so rare that they are protected by the federal government. The Lake Wales Ridge contains a complex patchwork of vegetation shaped by many factors including fire (now restored by land managers), soil characteristics, and elevation.

DRY UPLANDS
Sandhills. On the Ridge's hilltops open pinelands called sandhills thrive. One hundred years ago, longleaf pine trees stood as natural pillars over much of Florida's high sandy hills. The open canopy allowed sunlight to nurture waist-high grasses and carpets of wildflowers. Historically these high pine forests covered a quarter of the state and much of the coastal plain throughout the southeast. Low-intensity fires, every two-to-five years, kept the sandhills healthy.

Because of timber operations, agricultural practices, and fire suppression, much of Florida's sandhills have disappeared. On the Lake Wales Ridge, sandhill vegetation is even rarer than scrub. In the wake of such loss, more than 30 plant and animal species associated with the sandhill are threatened with extinction.

Scrub. Scrub has helped to make the Lake Wales Ridge famous and is home to a large number of narrowly distributed plants. In fact, Highlands County, Florida, is ranked 11th in the nation for having the highest number of threatened and endangered species.

Scrub is Florida's version of a desert. Clumps of shrubs, mostly oaks and blueberry relatives, cover the sandy knolls and are interspersed with open patches of bare sand. Lichens often dot the surface. With little ground cover to carry a fire, scrub is maintained by infrequent (every 20-to-80 years) but intense fires.

Although scrub receives as much rain as other habitats in the state, its well-drained sand allows water to pass through rapidly, forcing plants to evolve special strategies for efficiently gathering and retaining moisture. Small leaves, with less surface area exposed to the drying heat and often coated with wax, is one of the ways plants have adapted to the desert-like conditions. Below ground, extensive root systems seek out deep water tables and thick roots store ephemeral rain water.