Author | (Elliott) Moquin-Tandon | |
Distribution | Outer Coastal Plain, Outer Banks, and other barrier islands.
Maritime -- ME to southern FL, and TX; Mex, Bahamas. | |
Abundance | Fairly common to common. | |
Habitat | Brackish 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. |
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-November. | |
Identification | Annual 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 Comments | None
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Other Common Name(s) | Annual Seepweed, Southern Sea-blite | |
State Rank | S4 | |
Global Rank | G5 | |
State Status | | |
US Status | | |
USACE-agcp | OBL link |
USACE-emp | OBL link |