BEACH BLOOMS

BEACH GRASS IN BLOOM...

MEADOWSWEET FOWER SPIKE...

...MEADOWSWEET SHRUBS IN BLOOM...

...WILD ROSE AND MEADOW SWEET BLOOMS

Monday, 8:30 AM.  71 degrees F at the ferry dock, 67 degrees on the back porch.  The wind is variable but now mostly westerly, often with strong gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity down to 68%.  The barometer is rising, currently at 29.63".  We should have some nice summer weather for most of the week.

    The American beach grass, or American marram grass, Ammophilla breviligulata, is the primary pioneer dune species along the Great Lakes, as it is on the Atlantic coast .   It is now in full flower, and the seeds will soon develop, the stalks remaining long into the winter.   Beach grass spreads aggressively by runners, and tenaciously holds and builds the foredune, the sand dune closest to the water.  Often it is the only plant species holding the sand in place.   It is an extremely important conservation plant, without which lake and ocean shorelines would be much more prone to erosion.  A. arenaria is a quite similar European beach grass, in times past used for beach erosion control on the east coast of the United States.
   Meadowsweet, Spiraea alba, in the rose family, the Rosaceae, is blooming along the back of the foredune at the beach.  It is quite attractive and is sweet scented.  It is not uncommon if one is a frequenter of swamps and other wet places.  It is growing along with blueberries, wild roses and poison ivy in the damp sand.
   The spiraeas are important ornamental plants and there are a number of introduced European and Asian species so used, and they have been much hybridized. There are a number of other North American species as well. All contain methyl salicylate, the primary ingredient of aspirin.  Therefore it is not surprising that many species have herbal and folk medicine uses, and there are references to American Indian use of the plant as a medicinal tea as well.  In Quebec meadowsweet is called The' Du Canada.