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Ammophila breviligulata
Also called American Marramgrass, Marramgrass, American Marram, Dune Grass
American beachgrass is a perennial grass native to Atlantic and Great Lakes coastal sand dunes, where it builds the first line of foredunes. It thrives in shifting sand that is regularly buried and kept dry and windy, which is the key to growing it.
Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass or American marram grass) is a species of grass native to eastern North America, where it grows on sand dunes along the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes coasts. Beachgrass thrives under conditions of shifting sand, sand burial, and high winds; it is a dune-building grass that builds the first line of sand dunes along the coast. Beachgrass is less vigorous in stabilized sand, and is only infrequently found further inland than the coastal foredunes. On the Atlantic coastline of North America, Ammophila breviligulata has been observed as far south as North Carolina, and is often planted in dune restoration projects. Ammophila breviligulata was introduced to the Pacific coast of North America in the 1930s. It is proving to be invasive, and is increasingly important to coastal ecology and development in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Both species of beachgrass are noted for their association with stable sand dunes, and observations in regions where they were introduced to coasts indicate that they build the first line of dunes on coasts (the foredunes). The plants spread rapidly – 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3.0 m) annually – through the sand by subsurface runners (rhizomes), and can produce up to 100 stems per clump annually. They can tolerate burial in as much as 3 feet (0.9 m) of sand; sand burial stimulates the rhizomes to grow vertically, and is essential to plant vigor. The beachgrass species are also very good examples of xerophytes, being able to thrive on arid to semi-arid beach dunes. The plant has several mechanisms for adapting to heat stress or wind. The long narrow leaves can roll or fold, and the rough upper leaf surface, which contains the gas exchange openings (stomata), can orient itself away from the wind.
European beachgrass · Beachgrass · Feather reed grass · Purple Reedgrass · Bolander's reedgrass · Shorthair reedgrass · Bluejoint · Purple smallreed · Calamagrostis carchiensis · Wood Small Reed · Leafy reedgrass · Calamagrostis fulgida
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ammophila breviligulata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
