Spartina maritima

Taxobox
name = "Spartina maritima"
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Liliopsida
ordo = Cyperales
familia = Poaceae
genus = "Spartina"
species = "S. maritima"
binomial = "Spartina maritima"
binomial_authority = (Curtis) Fernald

"Spartina maritima" (Small Cordgrass) is a species of cordgrass native to the coasts of western and southern Europe and western Africa, from the Netherlands west across southern England to southern Ireland, and south along the Atlantic coast to Morocco and also on the Mediterranean Sea coasts. There is also a disjunct population on the Atlantic coasts of Namibia and South Africa.

It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing 20-70 cm tall, green in spring and summer, and turning light brown in autumn and winter. The leaves are slender, 10-40 cm long, and 0.5-1 cm broad at the base, tapering to a point. It produces flowers and seeds on all sides of the stalk. The flowers are greenish, turning brown by the winter.

Hybridisation and decline

When the related American species "Spartina alterniflora" (Smooth Cordgrass) was introduced to southern England in about 1870, it hybridised with "S. maritima" to give the hybrid "Spartina × townsendii". This then gave rise to a new allotetraploid species "Spartina anglica" (Common Cordgrass), which is much more vigorous, and has now largely ousted "S. maritima" from much of its native range in western Europe.

References

* [http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-1680 UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee: "Spartina"]
* [http://www.english-nature.org.uk/livingwiththesea/project_details/good_practice_guide/habitatcrr/ENRestore/Habitats/Saltmarsh/Management/Spartina/SpartinaSummary.htm English Nature: Spartina summary]