“The piney woods and the flat-woods are more open and therefore perhaps more hospitable, in spite of their poorer soil and dryness, but the hamaca shares with marsh and swamp the great mystery of Florida.”
     --Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek
 

“There is of course an affinity between people and places…. We were bred of earth before we were born of our mother.  Once born, we can live without mother or father, or any other kin, or any friend, or human love.  We cannot live without the earth or apart from it, and something is shrivelled in a man’s heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men.”
     --Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek
 
 

 To walk into a Florida hammock is to take a step back in time, letting centuries slip away to a period when there was nothing more important in life than this beautiful world unfolding around you with every step you take.  The hammock makes an instant impression: the first thing you notice is the sound.  The hammock is an almost indescribable mix of sounds that are all so subtle on their own, but when they are combined together, it makes you spin around in circles, trying to see where each one originates, until you learn to just relax and enjoy it as you walk through.  First you notice the wind, swishing through the treetops and shaking the palms and the oaks in a distinctive rustling noise that often begins before you even feel it on your face.  Then you hear the mosquitoes that will never quite leave you alone, but that you forgive anyway because their buzzing blends so beautifully with the wind in the trees.  With every step you take there will be an immediate scurrying through the leaves at your feet as tiny lizards hurry away from you, and far above your head you will hear a distant bird calling.  In the brief moments when the wind dies down and the mosquitoes are away, you can hear the undertones of the river flowing by.

 The word “hammock” comes from the Spanish word hamaca, meaning “a highly arable type of soil.” The hammock is a habitat unique to the state of Florida and is the common name applied to any hardwood forest.  The soil of the hammock is usually very fertile, and a layer of humus covers the ground.  The humidity is often higher in the hammock due to the fact that hammocks grow near bodies of water, and in the case of the hydric hammock, the woods actually grow on low, damp, or occasionally flooded ground, as near the banks of the Wekiva River.  The hydric hammock is the intermediate between the swamps and marshes that compose the actual banks of the river, and the flatwoods that grow on higher elevations and in dryer soil.