Salt bushes and grasses are the dominant plants in the high salt marsh, flooded only during extreme high tides and storm events. Salt bushes indicate the upland limit of tidal marshes. See the field guide to salt and brackish marsh plants for detailed line drawings and habit of the plants.
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Salt Meadow Plants -
found in areas of periodic inundation |
Habit of Plant |
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Saltmeadow hay - Spartina patens. Leaves are in-rolled not 2-ranked with densely overlapping spikelets borne only one one side of axis. It grows from 1-3 ft. and blooms from July to September. |
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Salt grass - Distichlis spicata. Has a terminal spike inflorescence and 2-ranked leaves. It grows 8-16 inches and blooms from July to September.
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Sea lavender - Limonium spp. Has basal leaves and lavender flowers that bloom from July to October. Plant grows up to 3 ft.
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Salt marsh aster - Aster tenuifolius. Has alternate, flexuous linear leaves and pale purple, blue or white daisey-like flowers that bloom from July to September. Plant grows 1-4 ft.
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Marsh orach or Orach spearscale - Atriplex patula. Has fleshy, arrow-shaped, alternate leaves and grows up to 4 ft. Blooms from July to September.
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| Detailed View |
Salt Panne Plants -
found in areas infrequently inundated
and concentrated salts |
Habit of Plant |
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Grounsel bush - Baccharis halimifolia - has alternate fleshy lobed leaves and dense clusters of conspicuous white flowers in fall. Grows up to 8 ft and blooms from September to October. |
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Switch grass - Panicum virgatum. Has straw-colored paniculate inflorescence. It grows up to 3 ft. and blooms from July to September.
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W.J. Hayden
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Seaside goldenrod - Solidago sempervirens. Has dense clusters of yellow flowers and alternate lance-shaped leaves. It grows from 4-5 ft. and blooms from August to October.
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Marsh elder - Iva frutescens - has opposite fleshy, lance-shaped toothed leaves, with small greenish white flowers that are not prominent. It grows 2-6 ft. and blooms in August to October. |
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Sea oxeye - Borrichia frutescens. Grows up to 3 ft. with opposite fleshy leaves, yellow daisy-like flowers that bloom from July to September. |
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Glasswort - Salicornia spp. Has succulent round stems with scale-like leaves. Grows 4-20 inches and blooms from July to November.
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Marsh hibiscus or rose mallow - Hibiscus moscheutos. Has large showy white hibiscus flowers and alternate leaves. Grows up to 12 ft. and blooms July to September.
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Marsh mallow - Kosteletzkya virginica. Has showy pink hibiscus-like flowers with alternate leaves that have dense hairs. It grows 2-3 feet and blooms from July to August.
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Phragmites - Phragmites australis. Has 2 ranked wide, bluish-green leaves with a large inflorescence plume. It grows 6-14 feet and blooms in September to October.
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