Home, home on the Ridge where scrub jay, gopher tortoise, indigo snake, sand skink and the Florida mouse roam. Plants and animals found no where else in the world are surviving on the edge of extinction in an ecosystem like no other. The Lake Wales Ridge, Florida’s Ancient Islands, is a relic sand dune with the highest concentration of rare and endangered plants in the continental United States.

“This is a hot spot of endemic species,” biologist Jennifer Navarra explained at the monthly meeting of the Ridge Organic Cooperative on Monday, Mar. 4. “Dating back more than one million years, the Ridge that runs 150 miles north and south through the Florida peninsula is the state’s oldest and largest.”