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BEACH GRASS IN BLOOM |
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| BUDDY ISN'T SURE ABOUT THIS... |
Wednesday, 9:00 AM. 60 degrees F at the ferry dock, 65 on the back porch. Wind WNW, light with stronger gusts. The humidity is 88%, the barometer mostly steady, at 30.08". The grass is again soaked with dew. The forecast calls for mixed skies with highs in the mid 60's, with a chance of rain on Sunday.
I had been promising Buddy a run on the beach, so we went yesterday late afternoon. The beach grass was in bloom. Buddy had a good run, and encountered a strange water creature that he was quite uncertain about. Anyway, a good time was had by all
I had been promising Buddy a run on the beach, so we went yesterday late afternoon. The beach grass was in bloom. Buddy had a good run, and encountered a strange water creature that he was quite uncertain about. Anyway, a good time was had by all
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 beginning to 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, but now considered an undesirable alien.
The beach and its sand are constantly changing position due to the action of wind and waves. If not stabilized by nature, there would be constant destruction of habitat. The primary stabilizer and colonizer of our Great Lakes beaches is beach grass, which although it produces seed, spreads and does its work primarily by stoloniferous runners that produce new plants, much as a strawberry plant does, by offshoots. This tenacious grass stretches across huge areas of sand, and if conditions warrant, other plants such as wild rose and sand cherry and poison ivy follow in its wake, and eventually other shrubs and finally trees. This whole natural succession process is of course often altered by wind, waves, fire or human activity, and then must start all over again.
It has been said, “grass is the benediction of nature,” and that certainly applies to beach grass.
The beach and its sand are constantly changing position due to the action of wind and waves. If not stabilized by nature, there would be constant destruction of habitat. The primary stabilizer and colonizer of our Great Lakes beaches is beach grass, which although it produces seed, spreads and does its work primarily by stoloniferous runners that produce new plants, much as a strawberry plant does, by offshoots. This tenacious grass stretches across huge areas of sand, and if conditions warrant, other plants such as wild rose and sand cherry and poison ivy follow in its wake, and eventually other shrubs and finally trees. This whole natural succession process is of course often altered by wind, waves, fire or human activity, and then must start all over again.
It has been said, “grass is the benediction of nature,” and that certainly applies to beach grass.
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