Intertidal sand flat salt marsh plants

Figure 3. Pioneer salt marsh plants colonizing bare sand habitat (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)

Figure 3 shows a place where salt marsh plants have just become established on an intertidal sand flat. This is a relatively rare occurrence, because most marshes increase in size as a result of vegetative reproduction in which roots and similar underground structures called rhizomes exited outward from parental plants and put up shoots in new areas. The two patches of grass shown here are separated too far from others for me to think that this vegetative reproduction mechanism can explain their presence. Therefore, I think that these plants originated from sexual reproduction through the germination of seeds.

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