ABSTRACT
Florida was the first mainland region north of Mexico to be explored and settled by Europeans. Although there have been individual studies of plants used by the inhabitants of Florida (Austin 1980, 1997, Larson 1980, Hann 1986), no synthesis has ever been made of this pivotal region in the history of New World exploration. That fact is especially remarkable because Florida supports one of the richest floras in North America, combining temperate and tropical elements. Perhaps part of the reason Florida has been neglected botanically is because the Spanish explorers failed to find large native populations that might be exploited for mining and food production. The Spaniards also failed to find people who had large quantities of precious metals (Hudson et al. 1989). Another factor is doubtless that the early records were sequestered in Spain for centuries.
