Merimbula saltmarsh checklist The ecological values of saltmarsh Coastal saltmarsh is a rare vegetation community with specialised and fascinating plant life. Common name Scientific name Family Coastal saltmarshes provide a buffer between marine and terrestrial environments. They stabilise and filter shore Trees and shrubs sediments, cycle nutrients and support estuarine food under the There are fine examples of saltmarsh around Austral Seablite Suaeda australis Chenopodiaceae chains. Many invertebrates live in the community, including Merimbula Lake, and the Merimbula Boardwalk is a Bracelet Honey-myrtle Melaleuca armillaris Myrtaceae worms, crabs, molluscs, spiders and insects. Saltmarsh great way to see them. This brochure introduces the Grey Mangrove Avicennia marina Acanthaceae provides feeding habitat for fish during high tides and for main plant species in this saltmarsh community. ssp australasica insectivorous bats at night. Shorebirds like the threatened Pied Oystercatcher and Sanderling use saltmarshes for boardwalk About saltmarsh River Mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum Primulaceae feeding and high tide roosting. Coastal Saltbush Rhagodia candolleana Chenopodiaceae Coastal saltmarsh is a wetland community of the upper Shrubby Glasswort Tecticornia arbuscula Chenopodiaceae About the Merimbula Lake Boardwalk intertidal zone of estuaries and bays. At Merimbula, it occurs in a belt between Grey Mangroves and Bracelet Forbs The Merimbula Lake Boardwalk is 1.7 kilometres long, plants Honey Myrtle scrub. Saltmarsh is a Angled Lobelia Lobelia anceps Campanulaceae running west from the bridge on Market Street. The mosaic of rushbeds, sedgelands, Beach Saltbush Atriplex australasica Chenopodiaceae Boardwalk was built by the Bega Valley Shire Council and grasslands, Samphire and Brook- Coast Buttons Leptinella longipes Asteraceae State Government with Commonwealth assistance. There of the weed herbfields, chenopod shrub- Creeping Brookweed Samolus repens Theophrastaceae are toilets and a shop at the western end. It is the most lands and bare salt pans. southerly mangrove boardwalk in Australia and the highest Grass Daisy Brachyscome graminea Asteraceae latitude mangrove boardwalk in the world. Merimbula Lake Samphire, sometimes with shrubs New Zealand Spinach Tetragonia tetragonoides Aizoaceae and mangrove seedlings, occupies the lowest and most Pigface Carpobrotus glaucescens Aizoaceae Other accessible saltmarshes in the region are at Pambula saline parts of the community. Salt-tolerant rushes, sedges Wetland (‘Panboola’) and Bermagui (which is dominated by and grasses grow in the upper saltmarsh. Round-leaved Pigface Disphyma crassifolium Aizoaceae the threatened herb Narrow-leafed Wilsonia in some parts). saltmarsh ssp clavellatum Saltmarsh plants must cope with inundation by sea water Tasmanian Sandspurry Spergularia tasmanica Caryophyllaceae during high tides as well as occasional drying out. These plants are ‘halophytes’; they can survive in extremely saline Samphire, Glasswort Sarcocornia quinqueflora Chenopodiaceae soil conditions. They do this by loading their tissues with ssp quinqueflora ions to maintain cell Sea Celery Apium prostratum Apiaceae pressure, while excluding Sea Lavender Limonium australe Plumbaginaceae salt from their sap flow. Swamp Weed Selliera radicans Goodeniaceae Some species use succulent Water Buttons Cotula coronopifolia Asteraceae leaves and stems to reduce Grasses, rushes and sedges their uptake of salty water. Bare Twig-rush Baumea juncea Cyperaceae More information Plants like Grey and River Mangrove, Brookweed and Sea Lavender have glands which excrete salt. Chaffy Saw Sedge Gahnia filum Cyperaceae National Parks Visitor Centre cnr Merimbula Drive and Coast Speargrass Austrostipa stipoides Poaceae Sapphire Coast Drive, Merimbula ph 6495 5000 Unlike other communities, species diversity in saltmarsh Common Reed Phragmites australis Poaceae Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, increases with distance from the equator. Some species Suite 2 Bega Centre, 106 Auckland Street, Bega ph 6491 8203 Green Couch Cynodon dactylon Poaceae have a global distribution. Others like Sea Rush and NSW Fisheries, Far South Coast Fisheries Office Samphire originated in Gondwana and are also found in Knobby Club-sedge Ficinia nodosa Cyperaceae 13 Cocora Street, Eden ph 6496 1377, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. Nodding Club-sedge Isolepis cernua Cyperaceae www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/habitat/aquatic-habitats Prickly Couch Zoysia macrantha Poaceae Coastal Saltmarsh is an Endangered Ecological Community Panboola - Pambula Wetlands Heritage Project in New South Wales and is also protected under the Saltwater Couch Sporobolus virginicus Poaceae http://thebegavalley.org.au/panboola.html Fisheries Management Act 1994. Threats to the community Sea Rush Juncus kraussii Juncaceae Coastal saltmarsh endangered ecological community profile - include infilling, weeds, vehicle and stock damage, pollution Streaked Arrowgrass Triglochin striatum Juncaginaceae www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au and the encroachment of mangroves. Climate change and Toad Rush Juncus bufonius Juncaceae Saintilan, N. ed. (2009) Australian Saltmarsh Ecology, CSIRO rising sea levels also continue to take their toll on saltmarsh. Printed on environmentally friendly paper © Paul McPherson 2011 [email protected], ph 02 6496 7075 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm River Mangrove Grey Mangrove Creeping Brookweed Water Buttons Sea Lavender New Zealand Spinach Samphire, Glasswort Austral Seablite Aegiceras corniculatus Avicennia marina Samolus repens Cotula coronopifolia Limonium australe Tetragonia tetragonoides Sarcocornia quinqueflora Suaeda australis FAMILY: PRIMULACEAE FAMILY: ACANTHACEAE FAMILY: THEOPHRASTACEAE FAMILY: ASTERACEAE FAMILY: PLUMBAGINACEAE FAMILY: AIZOACEAE FAMILY: CHENOPODIACEAE FAMILY: CHENOPODIACEAE A shrub with alternate leaves A small tree with opposite An erect or creeping herb An erect or spreading annual A tall perennial herb with a A spreading annual or short- A perennial herb with A shrub to one metre high dotted with salt glands. It leaves and aerial roots with narrow leaves and white with toothed or entire, slightly rosette of large basal leaves lived perennial with large succulent, jointed and with succulent green to purple flowers from spring to early (‘pneumatophores’). It or pale pink flowers in Sept- fleshy leaves. It was thought (see inset). It flowers in slightly fleshy triangular leaves, nearly leafless branches. leaves, flowers in short axillary summer. Pores on the trunk flowers mainly in autumn. April. It is the dominant herb to be introduced but is now summer and is a rare species flowering spring-summer. It is It is dominant in the lower or terminal inflorescences (‘lenticels’) are used to obtain Like the unrelated River in some areas, often growing considered native and one in NSW, restricted to the south widespread in Australia and saltmarsh, tolerating and a small, succulent fruit oxygen. It prefers less saline Mangrove, the seed with Samphire. It is also found of the species originating in coast. Other Limonium species New Zealand and was widely prolonged inundation. It perianth. It is a dominant conditions, and is at its germinates on the parent in New Zealand and South Gondwana. The showy flowers are used for dyeing and cut used as a green vegetable by sheds the tiny leaf bases to shrub over large areas in some southern limit right here. plant before falling. America (Chile). appear mainly in spring. flowers (“Statice”). early settlers. remove excess salt. saltmarshes. 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm 1 cm Bracelet Honey-myrtle Shrubby Glasswort Angled Lobelia Shiny Swamp-mat Pigface Round-leaved Pigface Grass Daisy Tasmanian Sandspurry Melaleuca armillaris Tecticornia arbuscula Lobelia anceps Selliera radicans Carpobrotus glaucescens Disphyma crassifolium Brachyscome graminea Spergularia tasmanica FAMILY: MYRTACEAE FAMILY: CHENOPODIACEAE FAMILY: CAMPANULACEAE FAMILY: GOODENIACEAE FAMILY: AIZOACEAE ssp clavellatum FAMILY: ASTERACEAE FAMILY: CARYOPHYLLACEAE A tall shrub to 5 metres high A medium shrub with A sprawling herb with linear A prostrate herb with glossy A prostrate perennial with FAMILY: AIZOACEAE A perennial herb with narrow An erect pink-flowered herb with linear curved leaves and succulent, jointed branches leaves and angled branches linear or spoon-shaped leaves. opposite succulent leaves A mat-forming herb with stem leaves. The flowers with glandular hairs on the dense white flower spikes. and reduced leaves. The tiny with wings formed from the It copes with prolonged triangular in cross-section and opposite succulent leaves are white, pale blue or pink, sepals and opposite narrow It dominates the estuarine terminal flowers appear in leaf bases. The solitary flowers inundation and dominates the with visible glands. It favours rounded in cross-section, and sometimes coloured only on fleshy leaves. It flowers wetland scrub which autumn in groups of three. In appear Nov-July, and have the groundcover in some areas. beach strand vegetation but dry fruit. It is uncommon in the underside of the spring-autumn. Similar to intergrades with saltmarsh NSW, the species is restricted corolla tube split to the base. It The fan-type flowers appear occurs in transitional areas of the region. This is the only ‘petals’. It flowers most of the introduced Sandspurry along the Boardwalk. It to saltmarshes south from is abundant at the eastern end spring-summer, particularly the Merimbula saltmarsh. The Disphyma species and it is year, and grows in wet grassy species, it differs by having flowers in summer. Jervis Bay. of the Boardwalk. after inundation. pulp of the ripe fruit is edible. endemic to Australia. areas. wings around the seeds. .