Saltmarsh Plants
Plant species diversity is relatively low, since they must be tolerant of salt, complete or partial submersion, and living in mud (sandy silt and clay soils) which contains very little oxygen. The most common salt marsh plants are glassworts like the Sarcicornia species, grasses and sedges. Coastal saltmarsh does not have a tree layer but may have some trees scattered through it, for example, Grey Mangrove or River Mangrove.
Scattered or clumped shrubs may emerge from the continuous groundcover such as young mangroves, Swamp Paperbark and south of Sydney and saltbush. In Victorian saltmarshes groundcover species that are most common and these include: Baumea juncea, Knobby Club Rush (Ficinia nodosa), Sea Rush (Juncus kraussii), Creeping Brookweed (Samolus repens), Samphire (Sarcocornia quinqueflora), Swampweed (Selliera radicans), Austral Seablite (Suaeda australis), Streaked Arrowgrass (Triglochin striata) and Prickly Couch (Zoysia macrantha). In brackish areas dense stands of tall reeds (Phragmites australis and Typha spp.) may occur as part of the community. The plant species found depend on the geographic location of the saltmarsh.
The diversity of saltmarsh plant species increases as you move south in Australia.
Photographs of species from other states can be found in Gallery 1- Plants.
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Some Victorian saltmash species
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