This is a list of streams and rivers in the U.S. state of Florida. With one exception, the streams and rivers of Florida all originate on the Coastal plain. That exception is the Apalachicola River, which is formed by the merger of the Chattahoochee River, which originates in the Appalachian Mountains, and the Flint River, which originates in the Piedmont. Most streams and rivers in Florida start from swamps, while some originate from springs or lakes. Many of the streams and rivers are underground for part of their courses. The Everglades, sometimes called the "river of grass", is a very wide and shallow river that originates from Lake Okeechobee. Most of Florida's streams and rivers drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Drainage on the east coast of Florida is dominated by the St. Johns River, which, with the swamps that form its headwaters, extends parallel to the coast from inland of Fort Pierce to Jacksonville.[1]
Water enters Paynes Prairie Basin from a number of sources. Historically it drained only into Alachua Sink. Water entering the Alachua Sink flows into the Floridan aquifer.[2] (Various sources stating that water entering the Alachua Sink flows to the Santa Fe River may be based on a story told by a Seminole guide to a white explorer in 1823, that a Seminole who had drowned in the sink was later found in the river.[3]) In 1927, Camps Canal was built, which linked the basin to the Orange Lake through the River Styx and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean.
Rivers are listed as they enter the gulf from south to north, then west. Tributaries are listed as they enter their main stem from downstream to upstream.
^Clewell, Andre F. (1991). "Physical Environment". In Livingston, Robert J. (ed.). The Rivers of Florida. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 17–18. ISBN0-387-97363-X.
^"Orange Creek Basin". Saint Johns River Water Management District. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
^"Kissimmee Upper Basin"(PDF). South Florida Water Management District. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
^"Kissimmee Lower Basin"(PDF). South Florida Water Management District. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
Fernald, Edward A., Ed. 1981. Drainage Basins and Divides. Atlas of Florida. Tallahassee, Florida: The Florida State University Foundation, Inc. p. 18. ISBN0-9606708-0-7
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