Southern Florida has very low elevation, which was in fact covered by the ocean until very recently, therefore has poor quality soil for the most part and not enough of it. This is why only regions with relatively higher ground are viable enough to sustain a rainforest as only these regions support the soil necessary for hardwoods (trees) to survive. This ecoregion is called the South Florida Rocklands. The relatively (barely) higher rocky ground allows for enough soil for hardwoods to survive,
which supports the only true tropical rainforest on the U.S. mainland and is categorized as part of the Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests biome.
The Miami Rock Ridge, Big Cypress Reserve and some of the Florida Keys account for the majority of this ecoregion and are dominated by tropical hardwood flora. Since the rest of South Florida lacks the high quality soil, rest of the region can only support tropical but low lying soft stem plants for the most part (e.g. Bromeliads: still part of the 'Tropical' biome in the game). The range of some of these tropical species extend all the way into subtropical Central Florida.
So the simple answer would be yes, true tropical rainforests occur in Southern Florida, but in pockets and in places where you can grow trees. Tropical foliage other than trees can grow basically anywhere in South Florida, even outside the boundaries of the SF Rocklands. And some of the tropical foliage also grow elsewhere in peninsular Florida.
The Everglades on the other hand is a flooded tropical savanna, which is why the American alligator is also missing the 'Grassland' tag. In fact they occur in grassland regions more so than the Cuvier's dwarf caiman, the latter which requires gallery forests within the grassland regions to thrive, but nevertheless has the 'Grassland' tag in the game. In addition, an important component of the range of the American alligator in the rest of Florida, Texas and the rest of Southeastern U.S. is
comprised of warm temperate, subtropical and tropical grasslands and savannas.
In summary, the American alligator is lacking both the 'Tropical' and 'Grassland' tags in the game. In fact the most marginal of all three of these terrestrial biomes would be 'Temperate', as their range barely extends into the warm temperate region with majority of it being in the subtropical and tropical forest and savanna regions. However they should have all three terrestrial tags in the game nonetheless, even 'Temperate'.
List of 'Tropical' biome plant assets in the game that are found in Florida (mostly South & Central):*
- Banana Palm (naturalized, native to Indomalaya and Australia, also found elsewhere in Southern U.S.)
- Bromeliad Plant (also found elsewhere in Southern U.S.)
- Century Plant (naturalized)
- Coastal Mangrove Tree
- Coconut Palm
- Custard Apple Tree
- Elephant Ear Plant
- Liana Vines
- Lobster Claw Plant
- Rainbow Eucalyptus (naturalized, native to Oceania)
- Scaevola Bush (naturalized, native to Oceania/Polynesia)
- Spanish Hanging Moss
- Strangler Fig Tree and Roots
- Swiss Cheese Plant (naturalized)
- Tamarind Tree (naturalized, native to Africa)
- Water Hyacinth (naturalized)
- Weeping Willow (mostly temperate and grows only in temperate Northern Florida, but grows in subtropical Asia, thus has the 'Tropical' tag)
- Wimba Tree
*Please let me know if I'm missing any.
**Tried to use the exact asset names in the game for an easier read
Basically most of the plant assets in the game tagged 'North America' and 'Tropical' are found in Florida. There's also a few 'Tropical' plants in the game missing the North America tag (e.g. Bromeliad Plant, Strangler Fig Tree and Roots, Swiss Cheese Plant, Water Hyacinth) that are found in Florida and elsewhere in tropical North America (e.g. Mexico and the Caribbean). I think this sums it up.
