Red Mangrove trees are the major island building plants in Florida Bay.
The early natives called them "the walking trees" because their spreading roots resemble walking legs.
Unlike Red Mangrove trees, Black Mangrove trees have base roots that spread out and then grow upward a foot or so as multiple clusters of long finger size roots along the shoreline. The Black and white mangrove trees -- together with the hard tropical wood of the Button Wood tree, build up the interior of many islands in Florida Bay.
Many kinds of sponges inhabit Florida Bay.
Sponges are colonies of very small primitive animals that provide habitant for many other important marine animals. As a colony, they vibrate to pump seawater so they can filter and feed on smaller animals swimming in the water column. A ten-gallon size sponge, like the above left image, can pump about fifteen-thousand gallons every twenty-four hours. Such sponges are called “volcano sponges” because the outward flow of filtered water can be seen near the water surface in shallow water. The red-orange fire sponge imaged on the above right, like many other colorful sponges, can cause numbness for days if handled for several minutes. Perhaps some medicines may be discovered from such sponges in the future.