Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Annual Sea-blite - Suaeda linearis   (Elliott) Moquin-Tandon
Members of Chenopodiaceae:
Only member of Suaeda in NC.
Google Images
Section 6 » Order Caryophyllales » Family Chenopodiaceae
Show/Hide Synonym
Author(Elliott) Moquin-Tandon
DistributionOuter Coastal Plain, Outer Banks, and other barrier islands.

Maritime -- ME to southern FL, and TX; Mex, Bahamas.
AbundanceFairly common to common.
HabitatBrackish marsh edges, salt flats, storm overwashes. Typically found at the edges of wetlands, and not a true wetland species but not an obvious upland species either.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting August-November.
IdentificationAnnual Sea-blite is a branched plant typically 8 inches to 2 feet tall. Leaves are linear and pointy, 7-20 mm long and rather well-spaced on the branches. Flowers occur singly in leaf axils; the fruits are lens-shaped and mostly covered by the 5 sepals. Not as fleshy as glassworts, sea-blites are typically taller plants that possess obvious leaves. A small stand of the plants can look like a seedling red cedar (Juniperus) at some distance. This is a familiar plant of our coastal marsh edges and salt flats, along with one or more species of glassworts (Salicornia).
Taxonomic CommentsNone

Other Common Name(s)Annual Seepweed, Southern Sea-blite
State RankS4
Global RankG5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcpOBL link
USACE-empOBL link
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.
Select a source
AllHerbaria
Website
Select an occurrence type
AllCollection_natural