North Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida which comprises the north-central part of the state and encompasses the Gainesville Metropolitan Statistical Area (Alachua and Gilchrist counties), Bradford, Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Putnam, Suwannee and Union counties. The region's largest city is Gainesville (the home of the University of Florida). Other principal cities in the region include Ocala, Lake City, Live Oak, and Palatka.
Like the Florida Panhandle, this region is often reckoned as part of the Deep South, as compared to the rest of the state. The majority of white Americans in North Central Florida are traditionally of relatively unmixed English ancestry and have roots which have been in the region for many centuries.
The landscape and climate of North Central Florida does not portray the sub-tropical environment most associate with Florida. The landscape of North Central Florida has gently rolling hills dominated by magnolia trees and large Southern live oak hammocks draped with Spanish moss.
The region also has large expanses of pine tree forests. The climate is quite mild throughout the year but has very distinct winters with temperatures dropping below freezing quite often.
Read more about North Central Florida: Location, Cities, & Towns, Attractions in North Central Florida
Famous quotes containing the words north, central and/or florida:
“The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation; certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it: he cannot grow or mature.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“My solitaria
Are the meditations of a central mind.
I hear the motions of the spirit and the sound
Of what is secret becomes, for me, a voice
That is my own voice speaking in my ear.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“In Florida consider the flamingo,
Its color passion but its neck a question.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)