Name:
Spartina patens High Salt Marsh Alliance
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
This alliance comprises "high salt marsh" vegetation dominated or codominated by <i>Spartina patens</i> along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from Maine to Texas. The high salt marsh is irregularly flooded by tides and forms at slightly higher elevations than regularly flooded low marshes; they establish where peat accumulation raises the marsh surface above mean high tide. Landward the vegetation can transition to brackish marsh or upland vegetation. Variation in codominant species occurs across the geographic range. From the Canadian maritime provinces south to Delaware (discontinuously south to Virginia), this alliance is characterized by the dominance of <i>Spartina patens, Distichlis spicata</i>, and <i>Juncus gerardii</i> and the presence of more northerly distributed marsh species such as <i>Puccinellia fasciculata, Plantago maritima</i>, and <i>Triglochin maritima</i>.<br /><br />From Delaware south to Florida, this high salt marsh coastal community is dominated by <i>Spartina patens</i>, forming meadows at slightly higher elevations in relation to the adjacent <i>Spartina alterniflora</i> marsh. Diagnostic species for this community are <i>Spartina patens, Distichlis spicata, Borrichia frutescens, Kosteletzkya virginica, Juncus roemerianus</i>, and <i>Pluchea odorata</i>. Shrub seedlings such as <i>Baccharis halimifolia</i> and <i>Morella cerifera</i> may also be present.<br /><br />This alliance also includes mesohaline to oligohaline marshes of the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. In these associations, <i>Spartina patens</i> may strongly dominate, <i>Distichlis spicata, Spartina alterniflora</i>, and <i>Spartina patens</i> may codominate, <i>Distichlis spicata</i> may form pure stands, <i>Paspalum vaginatum</i> may strongly dominate, or <i>Spartina patens</i> and <i>Vigna luteola</i> may codominate. Other characteristic species include <i>Juncus roemerianus, Spartina spartinae, Spartina cynosuroides</i> (within its range), <i>Bolboschoenus robustus, Schoenoplectus americanus, Sagittaria lancifolia, Phragmites australis</i>, and <i>Eragrostis</i> spp. Here, this alliance forms mosaics with <i>Spartina spartinae</i> and <i>Spartina alterniflora</i> marshes and saline herbaceous vegetation.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:38239-{97124F9A-E8B4-4718-BCF9-6254736C3F0F}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
|
