Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Pickleweed and orange dodder. As its
name suggests, pickleweed tastes salty,
and humans have long made the most
of this special quality. Early colonists
pickled the plant, and local Native Ameri-
cans used the stems to add zing to
acorn mush, fish, and other dishes.
Today, pickleweed can be found on fancy
restaurant menus as “sea beans.”
(Jude Stalker)
marsh. The translucent stem segments have no leaves and resemble dark-
green miniature gherkins. Succulent stems, a lack of leaves, and a waxy
coating all reduce moisture loss. Like many plants, pickleweed changes
colors with the seasons, appearing grey-brown in winter, green from
spring through summer, and a drab reddish-green in fall (see cover inset
photo). Perennial pickleweed has a higher tolerance to salinity than any
other tidal marsh plant native to the estuary (save possibly its annual
cousin), and it is capable of growing in soil salt concentrations many times
higher than that of ocean water. Pickleweed tolerates soil hypersalinity by
concentrating and storing salt in its tissues—“pickling” itself—and by bal-
ancing the saltiness of its cell sap and shedding its older segments.
Pickleweed shelters many estuary species. Secretive Black Rails and
Salt Marsh Harvest Mice hide their nests amid its stems. Clapper Rails
may build nests in dense, tall, shrubby pickleweed mixed with gumplant,
and even Harbor Seals may use springy stands of pickleweed for a mat-
tress. Song Sparrows hunt amid pickleweed's roots for snails.
In some areas, what looks like bright orange tangles of yarn drape over
patches of pickleweed. These weird snarls are not silly string but a parasitic
plant called dodder (
Cuscuta salina
). Dodder tendrils can grow several
inches a day, and over time they may strangle entire plants in their day-glo
grip and cover hundreds of acres of pickleweed marsh. Dodder relies on
tiny suckers to penetrate the cuticle of marsh plants and feed of the nutri-
tious sap. Dodder infestations can cause mass diebacks of pickleweed, cre-
ating vegetation gaps exploited by other plants.
Alkali Bulrush
In the midst of brackish tidal marshes, or in the fresher waters of the delta
and intermittent lagoons, alkali bulrush (
Bolboschoenus maritimus
)
grows
