Plant Life/Vegetation of the Ichetucknee Springs State Park area.

Very few other places offer the scenic beauty and wide variety of plant life that can be found at Ichetucknee Springs. The springs provide a magnificent and complex ecosystem.

You will see the ancient cypress trees and swamps, huge live oaks and pine trees, dogwoods, wild rice, pennywort, foxtail, maples, wire grass, bracken fern, water chinquepin, stands of reeds, water lettuce, red holly berries, duckweed, and many different wildflowers.

Beneath you as you float down the Ichetucknee river is a beautiful underwater forest lush with eel grass and many other varieties of plant life. Please don't pick any plants out of the ground or harm any of the vegetation. Snorkelers sometimes grab on to plants, and uproot or injure them, harming the ecosystem.

All but one of the named springs are found in the first portion of the Ichetucknee, which from the Head Spring to midway of the tube run, is wide and grassy. From there on to the end of the tube run you will see a more dense and lush looking lowland forest surrounding you. The spring is surrounded by a beautiful hardwood canopy in much of these parts, but climbing the trees on the river banks is prohibited for safety reasons, and also to protect the plant life. All of the plant and animal life in the park is protected by the State of Florida. Each species is important to maintaining the pristine natural beauty of the stream. Hunting and timber removal are not allowed.