MARINE FLORA AND FAUNA OF THE NORTHEASTERN 



UNITED STATES. 

 Higher Plants of the Marine Fringe 



EDWIN T. MOUL' 



ABSTRACT 



The common higher plants of the beaches, dunes, morainal cliffs, and tidal marshes of 

 Southern New England are treated in an illustrated key, using only vegetative characters. Both 

 scientific and common names are given. Habitat lists of the plants are included, presenting to 

 the investigator the association of plants as they occur in nature. The range of each plant 

 along the Atlantic coast is designated. A glossary of terms is included. 



INTRODUCTION 



The marine environment in southern New 

 England is bordered by beaches, dunes, tidal 

 marshes, and morainal cliffs. In these various 

 types of harsh habitats a limited number of high- 

 er plants are able to grow and flourish, resisting 

 wind and salt spray. 



The illustrated key on the following pages was 

 prepared for the identification of most of the 

 higher plants growing on this marine fringe. 

 The characters employed in the key are vege- 

 tative, principally leaf form, and occasionally 

 root and stem features. The use of these char- 

 acteristics not only makes the key less technical, 

 but permits the identification of plants without 

 flowers and fruits. The key is designed for bi- 

 ologists, biology students, and amateur botanists. 

 A glossary of the few technical terms employed, 

 as well as diagrams illustrating the main char- 

 acters used to describe leaf shapes (Plate I), are 

 provided. 



A systematic list of plants has been omitted. 

 Instead plants are arranged in lists according 

 to the habitats in which they grow. This meth- 

 od of listing is useful to the investigator as it 



' Department of Botany, Nelson Biological Labora- 

 tories, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, 

 and Systematics-Ecology Program, Marine Biological 

 Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543. 



presents the association of plants as they occur 

 together in nature. 



After the name of each species in the habitat 

 list is given the geographic distribution of the 

 plant along the Atlantic coast as recorded in 

 "Gray's Manual of Botany" (Fernald, 1950). 

 Although "Higher Plants of the Marine Fringe" 

 has been designed primarily for use in southern 

 New England, the information on distribution 

 will give it wider application to the north and to 

 the south. The key has been tested primarily 

 on Cape Cod and has also been found usable in 

 Maine, New Jersey, and Delaware. However, 

 the user should be cautioned that species of 

 plants will be found both north and south of 

 southern New England which are not included 

 in the key. While most of the plants in the kev 

 are wide ranging, a few are restricted to our 

 northern shores. Frequently, mention is made 

 of species of a genus not included in the key 

 that may occur in southern New England or out- 

 side the range of this key. 



The majority of plants included here are the 

 spermatophytes or flowering plants. Only one 

 fern occurring in the dune habitat is listed. A 

 few mosses and lichens that are characteristic 

 of dune bogs and two algae that are integral 

 parts of the flora of tidal marshes are mentioned 

 in the habitat lists, but not in the key. 



