A study was carried out in a dwarf mangrove forest, dominated by Rhizophora mangle , located in the northern section of the Lower Taylor Slough in the Everglades National Park. The objective of this study is to describe the structure of the forest and both spatial and temporal variations in litterfall. Two distinctive climatic seasons occur in the region: dry season (November -April) and rainy season (May-October). Average total litter fall was 183 g/m2/yr during the rainy season and 284 g/m2/yr during the dry season. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in litterfall between the two climatic seasons.

The forest has a high density (7060 trees/ha), an average basal area (m2/ha) of 2.53, an average height of 1.2 m and a complexity index (CI) of 0.61. R. mangle accounts for 97.6% of the relative dominance and 96.7% of the relative density. The structural characteristics of this site are similar to that of Turkey Point, Florida, also a site dominated by dwarf red mangrove species (Pool et al. 1977), except that in the site in Taylor River the tree density is higher.