Merimbula saltmarsh checklist The ecological values of saltmarsh Coastal saltmarsh is a rare vegetation community Common name Scientific name Family Coastal saltmarshes provide a buffer between the sea and the with specialised and fascinating plant life. Trees and shrubs land. They stabilise and filter shore sediments, store carbon, cycle nutrients and support estuarine food chains. Austral Seablite Suaeda australis Chenopodiaceae boardwalk There are fine examples of saltmarsh around Bracelet Honey-myrtle Melaleuca armillaris Myrtaceae Micro-organisms like cyanobacteria, diatoms and algae are Merimbula Lake, and the Merimbula Boardwalk is a important components of the ecosystem. Many invertebrates Avicennia marina great way to see them. This brochure introduces the Grey Mangrove Acanthaceae also live in the community, including worms, crabs, molluscs, main plant species in the Merimbula saltmarsh. ssp australasica spiders and insects. Saltmarsh provides feeding habitat for fish, River Mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum Primulaceae shrimp and prawns during high tides and for insectivorous bats About saltmarsh Coastal Saltbush Rhagodia candolleana Chenopodiaceae at night. Shorebirds like the threatened Pied Oystercatcher and Sanderling use saltmarshes for feeding and high tide roosting. Shrubby Glasswort Tecticornia arbuscula Chenopodiaceae plants Coastal saltmarsh is a wetland community of the upper intertidal zone of estuaries, bays, lakes and lagoons. At Forbs About the Merimbula Lake Boardwalk Merimbula, it occurs in a belt between Grey Mangroves and Honey Myrtle scrub. Angled Lobelia Lobelia anceps Campanulaceae The Merimbula Lake Boardwalk is 1.7 kilometres long, running of the Beach Saltbush Atriplex australasica Chenopodiaceae west from the bridge on Market Street. It is the most southerly Saltmarsh is a mosaic of rushbeds, Coast Buttons Leptinella longipes Asteraceae mangrove boardwalk in Australia and the highest latitude sedgelands, grasslands, herbfields, mangrove boardwalk in the world. The Boardwalk was built Creeping Brookweed Samolus repens Theophrastaceae chenopod shrublands and salt pans. by the Bega Valley Shire Council and State Government with Merimbula Lake Grass Daisy Brachyscome graminea Asteraceae Commonwealth assistance. There are toilets and a shop at the Samphire, often with shrubs and New Zealand Spinach Tetragonia tetragonoides Aizoaceae western end. Some other accessible saltmarshes in the region mangrove seedlings, occupies the are at Pambula wetland (‘Panboola’) and Bermagui. lowest and most saline parts of the Pigface Carpobrotus glaucescens Aizoaceae community. Salt-tolerant rushes, sedges and grasses grow in Disphyma crassifolium Aizoaceae saltmarsh the upper saltmarsh. Round-leaved Pigface ssp clavellatum Saltmarsh plants have to cope with sea water during high Tasmanian Sandspurry Spergularia tasmanica Caryophyllaceae tides, and fresh water during heavy rain, as well as long dry Sarcocornia quinqueflora periods. They are ‘halophytes’, surviving in extremely saline soil Samphire, Glasswort Chenopodiaceae ssp quinqueflora conditions. These plants load their tissues with ions to maintain Sea Celery Apium prostratum Apiaceae cell pressure, keeping salt out of their sap flow. Sea Lavender Limonium australe Plumbaginaceae Some use succulent leaves Swamp Weed Selliera radicans Goodeniaceae and stems to reduce their uptake of salty water. Plants Water Buttons Cotula coronopifolia Asteraceae like Grey Mangrove and Grasses, rushes and sedges More information Sea Lavender have special National Parks Visitor Centre cnr Merimbula Drive and glands which excrete salt. Bare Twig-rush Baumea juncea Cyperaceae Sapphire Coast Drive, Merimbula ph 6495 5000 Chaffy Saw Sedge Gahnia filum Cyperaceae The community often contains a range of plant species, South East Local Land Services Coast Speargrass Austrostipa stipoides Poaceae although from just a handful of families. Many species are Roof Top Level/106 Auckland St Bega NSW 2550 ph 6491 8200 endemic to saltmarsh (they grow nowhere else). Common Reed Phragmites australis Poaceae NSW Fisheries, Far South Coast Fisheries Office Green Couch Cynodon dactylon Poaceae 13 Cocora Street, Eden ph 6496 1377, Unlike other communities, plant diversity in saltmarsh increases with distance from the equator. Some saltmarsh plants are Knobby Club-sedge Ficinia nodosa Cyperaceae www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/habitat/aquatic-habitats found all over the world. Others, like Sea Rush and Samphire, Panboola - Pambula Wetlands Heritage Project Nodding Club-sedge Isolepis cernua Cyperaceae originated in Gondwana and are also found in New Zealand, http://thebegavalley.org.au/panboola.html Prickly Couch Zoysia macrantha Poaceae South Africa and South America. Coastal saltmarsh endangered ecological community profiles Saltwater Couch Sporobolus virginicus Poaceae NSW: www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au Merimbula has lost a third of its saltmarsh in the last 50 years. Sea Rush Juncus kraussii Juncaceae Commonwealth: www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/ Saltmarsh is still threatened by infilling, weeds, vehicles, Streaked Arrowgrass Triglochin striatum Juncaginaceae threatened/communities grazing, pollution, encroaching mangroves, as well as rising sea levels caused by climate change. Coastal Saltmarsh is Toad Rush Juncus bufonius Juncaceae Saintilan, N. ed. (2009) Australian Saltmarsh Ecology, CSIRO listed as an Endangered Ecological Community under NSW Printed on environmentally friendly paper and Commonwealth legislation, and is also protected under State fisheries legislation. © Paul McPherson 2012 [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 Beaded Glasswort, Austral Seablite Aegiceras corniculatus Avicennia marina Samolus repens Cotula coronopifolia Limonium australe Tetragonia tetragonoides Samphire Suaeda australis family: primulaceae family: acanthaceae family: theophrastaceae family: asteraceae family: plumbaginaceae family: aizoaceae Sarcocornia quinqueflora family: chenopodiaceae A shrub with alternate leaves A small tree with opposite An erect or creeping herb with An erect or spreading annual A tall perennial herb with a A spreading annual or short- family: chenopodiaceae A shrub to one metre high dotted with salt glands. It leaves and aerial roots narrow leaves and white or pale with toothed or entire, slightly rosette of large basal leaves (see lived perennial with large A perennial herb with with succulent green to purple flowers from spring to early (‘pneumatophores’). It flowers pink flowers in Sept-April. It is the fleshy leaves. It was thought inset). It flowers in summer and is slightly fleshy triangular leaves, succulent, jointed and leaves, flowers in short axillary summer. Pores on the trunk mainly in autumn. Like the dominant herb in some areas, to be introduced but is now a rare species in NSW, restricted flowering spring-summer. It is nearly leafless branches. or terminal inflorescences (‘lenticels’) are used to obtain unrelated River Mangrove, the often growing with Samphire. considered native and one to the south coast. Other widespread in Australia and New It is dominant in the lower and a small, succulent fruit oxygen. It prefers less saline seed germinates on the parent It is also found in New Zealand of the species originating in Limonium species are used for Zealand and was widely used saltmarsh, tolerating prolonged perianth. It is a dominant shrub conditions, and is at its south- plant before falling. and South America (Chile). Gondwana. The showy flowers dyeing and cut flowers (“Statice”). as a green vegetable by early inundation. It sheds the tiny leaf over large areas in some ern limit right here. appear mainly in spring. settlers. bases to 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 succulent, jointed branches leaves and angled branches linear or spoon-shaped leaves. It opposite succulent leaves A mat-forming herb with opposite stem leaves. The flowers with glandular hairs on the and dense white flower and reduced leaves. The tiny with wings formed from the copes with prolonged inundation triangular in cross-section and succulent leaves rounded in are white, pale blue or pink, sepals and opposite narrow spikes. It dominates the terminal flowers appear in leaf bases. The solitary flowers and dominates the groundcover with visible glands. It favours cross-section, and dry fruit. It is sometimes coloured only on fleshy leaves. It flowers spring- estuarine wetland scrub which autumn in groups of three. In appear Nov-July, and have the in some areas. The fan-type beach strand vegetation but uncommon in the region. This is the underside of the ‘petals’. It autumn. Similar to introduced intergrades with saltmarsh NSW, the species is restricted corolla tube split to the base. It is flowers appear spring-summer, occurs in transitional areas of the the only Disphyma species and it flowers most of the year, and Sandspurry species, it differs along the Boardwalk. Honey- to saltmarshes south from abundant at the eastern end of particularly after inundation. Merimbula saltmarsh. The pulp is endemic to Australia. grows in wet grassy areas. by having wings around the myrtle flowers in summer. Jervis Bay. the Boardwalk. of the ripe fruit is edible. seeds. .