Wetlands 



from Test Tubes 



By Carlo. Burgess 



L 



Seagrasses are more closely related to water lilies than terrestrial grasses. 



: f wetlands are shedding their 

 image as wastelands, then it's fair to 

 say the plants that live in them are 

 gaining stature as well. Once widely 

 regarded as weeds, the plants that 

 fringe marshes, dot dunes and wave 

 underwater are coming into their own. 



When wild celery and wigeongrass 

 disappeared from Currituck Sound, so 

 did the ducks, geese and other migra- 

 tory birds that made the area a legend- 

 ary waterfowl menagerie. Develop- 

 ment, dredging, pollution and other 



1 8 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER J 995 



human intrusions have taken their toll 

 on wetlands in other ways. Salt 

 marshes have shrunk in acreage at the 

 expense of many benefits: clean water, 

 abundant fish and shellfish popula- 

 tions, and stable shorelines. 



The result has been a growing 

 appreciation for protecting these areas 

 and a trend toward restoring and 

 repairing damaged marine habitats. 

 But how do you replace a seagrass 

 meadow? How can you rebuild a salt 

 marsh? It takes plants that you won't 



find at the local feed-and-seed store. 



In early restoration projects, 

 biologists would collect plants from 

 undisturbed areas and transplant them 

 on the plot being created or restored. 

 But when projects grew in scale, field 

 collection began having negative 

 impacts on established wetlands. Some 

 states, most notably Florida, now limit 

 the amount and types of plants that can 

 be taken from the wild. 



So where will plants for restoration 

 come from? The solution may stem 



