MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 1 .'5 1 



SALT MARSHES. 



The pronouncedly Salt Marshes are found along estuaries in which 

 the water is salt, from just within the level of the lowest neap tides 

 up to a point somewhat above that reached by mean high tide. 

 These marshes bear a very uniform physiognomy due to the pre- 

 dominance of Spartina stricta var. maritima. The outer parts of 

 the Salt Marshes, subject to the most prolonged inundation, are 

 pure stands of Spartina, while in the inner portions there are asso- 

 ciated with it some of the more salt resisting plants of the halophytic 

 flora, as Salicornia herbacea, Tissa marina, Atriplex liastata, and 

 Aster temdfolius. Passing toward the upland on the areas which 

 are above mean high tide but subject to overflow at spring tide and 

 other exceptional tides, is found a type of Marsh in which Spartina 

 stricta var. maritima is absent and Spartina patens and Distichlis 

 spicata form a low turf of finer texture which, by reason of the 

 density of its stand, possesses usually as few accompanying species 

 as does the outer zone. Of these the commonest are Aster tenui- 

 folius, Aster subulatus, Juncus gerardi, Gerardia maritima, 

 Pluchea foetida, Pluchea campliorata. Behind the narrowest of the 

 Spartina stricta zones the Spartina patens zone is not found ; where 

 there is a less rapid transition to the upland and along the transition 

 zone in the longer rivers it reaches its best development. There are 

 frequent depressions in the general level of the marsh that have 

 been rendered so salt by successive inundation and evaporation that 

 they are occupied only by Salicornia or are sometimes entirely bare. 

 With this exception there is little to break the uniformity of the 

 plant covering. 



The physical features of Salt Marshes and the physiology of their 

 vegetation have been fully discussed by Kearney* for the lower 

 Chesapeake, and the conditions are practically identical in the Salt 

 Marshes of the portions of the Bay lying in Maryland. 



♦Kearney, Thomas H., A Botanical Survey of the Dismal Swamp Region. 

 Cont. Nat. Herb.. Vol. V., 1901. 



