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Photo courtesy of Jay Raney and The Texas Coastal Monitoring Program
Glasswort, pickleweed Salicornia virginica
Description:Flowering perennial growing to 0.3m. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs).
Life History:The flower, which bloom in summer and fall, are hermaphrodite. It is able to grow in highly saline environments, such as this salt marsh, through its ability to sequester salt into the vacuoles of its cells.
Habitat:Salty marshes and beaches with full sun and moist soil.
Distribution:Occurs in most coastal states from Nova Scotia to Florida from California to Alaska
Coastal marshes are fragile ecosystems that are altered over time as a result of invasion by exotic species and by development projects for communities and business as well as other natural and anthropogenic factors. In an effort to restore portions of the shoreline to its natural state, native marsh grasses were planted along the Texas coast. If you are interested in grasses and plants native to Texas coastal marshes, this page highlights some that were included in this areas' restoration projects. These species can be found inhabiting these sensitive marsh environments still today.
Species spotlight - Sesuvium
Gerald and Buff Corsi @ California Academy of Sciences.
Sea purslane Sesuvium
Description:The thick, fleshy leaves of Sesuvium are borne on succulent, reddish-green stems that branch regularly forming dense stands close to the ground. Typically stands 6-12" tall. Small, showy pink flowers are borne more or less continually throughout the year. Each flower opens for only a few hours each day.
Habitat:It grows on the ocean side of the dunes down to the high tide mark.
Distribution:Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida.
Status:These plants help build the dunes by catching sand in between stems and leaves.
Description:Salt grass is a perennial grass that grows to heights of six to eighteen inches. The stems are erect and rigid. Leaf blades grow in vertical ranks opposite on stem. They are ascending, stiff, and sharp pointed with parallel ridges. They are 1-6 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. Inflorescence of saltgrass is broad and spike-like and can reach 3 inches long. The spikelets are tan. The nutlets are small, smooth ovals.
Life History:Saltgrass is wind pollinated.
Habitat:Found in salt and brackish coastal marshes.
Distribution:Widely across the North America and Hawaii.
Description:Small to medium, succulent upright shrub with spreading branches or a prostrate shrub. Occasionally reaches 1 m in height, 2 m in lateral extent, and 5 cm in basal diameter. Stems are usually multiple as
sprouts from the root crown. As stems become tall and heavy, they lie down and root along the stems forming loose mats. Leaves smooth, pale green, succulent, and scented when crushed. Inconspicuous, white male and female flowers occur on different plants. Fruits are fleshy, yellow-green drupes.
Life History:Saltwort grows slowly in soils with high salt concentrations and areas with seawater overwash where it encounters little competition from other plants. The species sequesters salt in cell vacuoles and will eventually shed these leaves to achieve homeostasis. It also grows in sandy soils without salt but is vulnerable to competition from non-halophytes.
Saltwort flowers in the spring and fruits in the summer in most of range but will flower and fruit year round in Central America. Most effective reproduction of the species appears to be vegetative.
Habitat:Grows in coastal strands, salt flats, marshes, and mangroves. Requires full sun to light shade.
Distribution:Native to southern coastal areas of North America, also Central America and South America to Brazil and Peru.
Status:The principal benefit of saltwort is that it grows in, covers, and protects salty low-laying areas where few other species will grow.
Except in Hawaii, where it is being suppressed as an exotic plant (Big Island Invasive Species Committee 2002), there is little reason to control stands of saltwort. It grows in disturbed areas where few other plants can survive.
Description:Glassworts are succulent, fleshy plants with opposite leaves that extremely small, scale-like, and simple. They have jointed stems and are found in saline environments. The yellow flowers are tiny and are sunken into the stem. Dwarf glasswort has ascending stems and pointed scales. The inflorescence is wider than the stem.
Life History:Flowers in summer and early fall.
Habitat:Coastal salt marshes and tidal wetlands.
Distribution:The Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia down to Texas and Mexico. Also in California.
