The Southern Coastal Plain ecoregion consists of mostly flat plains, but it is a heterogeneous region containing barrier islands, coastal lagoons, marshes, and swampy lowlands along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. However, in Florida, an area of discontinuous highlands contains numerous lakes.

This ecoregion is lower in elevation with less relief and wetter soils than the Southeastern Plains (12M) just inland from the Southern Coastal plains. This ecoregion has a warmer climate, more heterogeneous (more diverse in soil, fauna and flora), and has a longer growing season and coarser textured soils than the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (12N).

This ecoregion was once covered by a variety of forest communities that included trees of longleaf pine, slash pine, pond pine, beech, sweetgum, southern magnolia, white oak, and laurel oak, land cover in the region is now mostly slash and loblolly pine with oak-gum-cypress forest in some low lying areas, citrus groves in Florida, pasture for beef cattle, and large urban areas.

Davis Bayou campground

Gulf Islands National Seashore