pickleweed cannot be measured by the 

 harvest method because of losses to 

 herbivores and export. Percent cover of 

 pickleweed, measured by the point method, 

 was 41% and bare space 58% in the lower 

 marsh, compared to 25% cover and 35% bare 

 space in the middle marsh, where other 

 species co-occurred. Additional data 

 (Onuf pers. coram.) provide average August 

 standing crops (above grourul) for 

 pickleweed of 0.33 to 0.55 kg/m during 

 the years 1978 to 1981, with a high degree 

 of variability between and among sampling 

 transects . 



At Los Penasquitos Lagoon, pickleweed 

 forms pure stands in the lower marsh 

 elevations. An especially lush stand 

 developed during conditions of brackish 

 soils after heavy rainfall in 1978. A 

 dense c^opy, nearly 1 m tall, measured 

 2.5 kg/m (dry weight of live biomass) in 

 August (Zedler et al. 1980). 



The species usually reproduces 

 vegetatively. Onuf (unpub, ms . ) never saw 

 a seedling during his intensive study of 

 pickleweed. Seedlings are likewise rare 

 at Tijuana Estuary. However, at the San 

 Diego River, seedlings appear in open 

 areas following winter rainfall. 



Annual pickleweed ( Sallcornia 

 bigelovii . Figure 15) is one of the few 

 annuals found in California marshes, and 

 its distribution is not extensive 

 (Macdonald 1977). It often coexists with 

 saltwort ( Batis maritima ) in areas of poor 

 drainage and occurs on creek banks where 

 other species provide only sparse 

 canopies- I have censused densities up to 

 2,500/m in August at Tijuana Estuary 

 (Zedler 1975) and the species' success 

 here makes it difficult to understand its 

 absence in other nearby marshes (c.f. 

 Table 4). Both annual pickleweed and 

 saltwort reach their northern 

 distributional limits near Point 

 Conception. 



Saltwort ( Batis maritima . Figure 16) 

 is a trailing succulent, which reaches 

 lengths of a meter or more, but rarely 

 gets taller than 0.3 m. Its decumbent 



branches root upon contact with the soil 

 and vegetative spread can be very rapid. 

 But they rarely produce dense cover and 

 the open, spreading growth form allows 

 annual pickleweed to coexist. Attempts to 

 test this experimentally failed, however, 

 because of the difficulty of keeping 

 either species out of exclusion plots 

 (Zedler unpub. data)! Annual pickleweed 

 continued to germinate through August 

 1975, while saltwort sprouted rapidly from 

 underground tissues. 



Jaumea carnosa (Figure 17), like 

 saltwort, is a low growing, vegetatively 

 spreading succulent. The two are easily 

 confused until the leaf bases are compared 

 or the bright yellow flowers of Jaumea are 

 contrasted with the fleshy but 

 f ar-f rom-showy fruiting structures of 

 saltwort. Pure patches occur, resulting 

 from vegetative growth, but seedlings are 

 occasionally seen. Further north in 

 Elkhorn Slough (121°46'N, 36°50'W), Dr. 

 John Oliver (pers. comm. ; Moss Landing 

 Marine Lab, Moss Landing, CA) has shown 

 that Jaumea invades clearings which result 

 from drift deposits or experimental 

 removal of previous marsh canopies. While 

 seedlings of Jaumea occur in well 

 developed canopies such as at Tijuana 

 Estuary, it is not known how often they 

 grow to maturity. 



Sea-blite ( Suaeda californica , Figure 

 18) is a short-lived perennial which does 

 not spread vegetatively (Purer 19^*2). 

 Seedlings of this species are common at 

 Tijuana Estuary. Its ability to establish 

 from seed allows sea-blite to invade bare 

 intertidal soils, but prevents it from 

 forming dense stands in an otherwise 

 vegetatively reproducing marsh vegetation. 



The succulent arrow grass (Figure 

 19), is sometimes reported as Triglochin 

 maritima (e.g. Zedler 1977) and sometimes 

 as T. concinnum (e.g. Winfield 1980). 

 Taxonomic keys distinguish the species on 

 the basis of rhizome and ligule 

 characteristics, so that close inspection 

 is necessary to separate the two in the 

 field. Winfield suggests that T\ 

 concinnum is the proper term for arrow 



26 



