Salt marsh grasses and water's edge plants in Graham Creek Nature Preserve

Many plants grow at the edge of the water, and they are very beneficial to the ecosystem. A while back, I wrote a blog about ribbed muscles, where I described the symbiotic relationship they have with marsh grasses. Together, the mussels and the grasses protect the shorelines of our bays and creeks from erosion. They filter out pollution and are nurseries and protectors for fish fry. For property owners along the waters’ edge in the surrounding waterways, they provide very effective erosion control. In fact, Scientists demonstrated the resiliency of salt marshes in Breton Sound, Louisiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the area in 2005. They found salt marsh loss to be at least 20 times less than losses in surrounding ecosystems.

This blog is meant to describe some of the wonderful plants that grow along the edges.

The primary grasses growing in the lower creek are smooth cordgrass and black needlerush. The dominant grass of those two depends on how waterlogged the soil is, with Black needlerush dominating the higher elevations.

Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) is yellowish in spring and summer, and brown in the fall and winter. It grows higher in the low marsh, up to 8 feet, but in high marsh may only be 1 foot in

height. It is well suited to tidal, brackish areas, and has glands along its blades that excrete excess salt.

Black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) has stiff, sharp green-black leaves. You would never want to bend over to look at something closer in the Black needlerush, to put it mildly. It grows in elevated spots on the marsh platform. It has traditionally been used in sweetgrass baskets*.

In the upper creek area, you’ll see Duck potato, Broad-leaf cattail, Arrow arum, Marsh pennywort, Hatpins, Spider lily, and Cana, along with water loving trees like Black willow, Slash pine and Bald cypress.

Broad-leaf cattail (Typha latifolia), beautiful plants with their tell tale “hot dog” flowers, fill areas of the upper creek. You can see plenty of them at the bridge crossing the creek just South of the visitor center. If you are kayaking the creek in late spring, you’ll be delighted by the Spider lilies (Hymenocallis spp.) They have very bright white flowers, and their basal leaves look like broad grass blades. They like to have wet feet so they’ll be right along the water’s edge, in fresh water.

I wrote a blog all about Duck potato, just follow the link.

You can see great photos of many emergent aquatic plants at Outdoor Alabama. Here’s a link. https://www.outdooralabama.com/aquatic-plants-category/emergent-aquatic-plants

* Sweetgrass baskets are a historically significant African art that was brought to America by enslaved Africans in the 17th century. They were used primarily for sewing rise, cotton and indigo.