''Sporobolus maritimus'', or synonymously as ''Spartina maritima'', the small cordgrass, is a species of

cordgrass ''Spartina'' is a genus of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Species in this genus are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Eu ...

native to the coasts of western and southern Europe and western Africa, from the Netherlands west across southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to southern Ireland, and south along the Atlantic coast to Morocco and also on the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

coasts. There is also a disjunct population on the Atlantic coasts of Namibia and South Africa.

Description

''Sporobolus maritimus'' is a coarse, robust,

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

growing gregariously from a creeping rootstock. The plant is tall, green in spring and summer, and turning light brown in autumn and winter. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are slender, long, and broad at the base, tapering to a blunt point. The inflorescence is a group of two or three unbranched spikes up to long, each with several unstalked, one-flowered, downy spikelets about long, which are produced on all sides of the stalk and closely pressed against it. The pointed stem tip does not overtop the highest spikelet. The flowers are greenish, turning yellowish-brown by the winter.

Distribution and habitat

''Sporobolus maritimus'' is native to the west-facing coasts of Europe and North Africa. It occupies a range of habitats including very soft mud and shingle, in minimally exposed areas, away from strong wave action. It occurs on the seaward margins of

saltmarsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It ...

es and creeks and may be plentiful in dried up pools in the upper parts of saltmarshes. In the British Isles, it occurs in estuaries in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and in the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

Hybridisation and decline

When the related American species ''

Sporobolus alterniflorus ''Sporobolus alterniflorus'', or synonymously known as ''Spartina alterniflora'', the smooth cordgrass, saltmarsh cordgrass, or salt-water cordgrass, is a perennial deciduous grass which is found in intertidal wetlands, especially estuarine salt ...

'' (smooth cordgrass) was introduced to southern England in about 1870, it hybridised with ''S. maritimus'' to give the

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

''Sporobolus × townsendii''. This then gave rise to a new

allotetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

species ''

Sporobolus anglicus ''Sporobolus anglicus'' (common cordgrass) is a hybrid-derived species of cordgrass that originated in southern England in about 1870 and is a neonative species in Britain. It was reclassified as ''Sporobolus anglicus'' after a taxonomic revisi ...

'' (common cordgrass), which is much more vigorous, and has now largely ousted ''S. maritimus'' from much of its native range in Western Europe.

References

UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee: ''Spartina''
{{Taxonbar maritima maritimus