Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene

Saltgrass; Coastal Saltgrass

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Saltgrass is a native herbaceous perennial in the Grass family (Poaceae). It occurs in coastal areas of Baldwin and Mobile Counties. Saltgrass is very salt tolerant and grows on dunes, in brackish and salt marshes, and in disturbed coastal habitats. It is a warm season carpet grass with long scaly rhizomes and sometimes stolons. The roots and rhizomes have continuous air cavities than run their length from the leaf sheaths, allowing for gas exchange in the roots when they are inundated. Saltgrass culms are erect to decumbent, solid, wiry, and vary from 1-3 feet in height. The leaves are 1-5 inches in length, linear in outline, flat, and evenly distributed along the culm. Flowers are produced in congested panicles. Saltgrass is dioecious, with separate male and female individuals. The panicles have 2 to 20 green or purple-tinted spikelets. The staminate panicles are larger, longer, and denser than the female panicles. The fruit is a grain. Saltgrass is able to take up saltwater and extrude the excess salt from special 2-celled salt glands along the leaves. This salt dries and often encrusts the leaves. It has served as a source of salt for Native Americans who harvested it by scraping the leaves. Saltgrass seeds and rhizomes provide an important food source for waterfowl, and it has been grown as a forage grass on saline soils. Saltgrass serves as an important source of food and cover for both fish and crustaceans in marshes, and its dense rhizomes help to stabilize shorelines.—A. Diamond.

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Native FACW+ (NWPL)

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