Pickleweed

1. Pickleweed What is the big deal?

2. What is it? • Pickleweed (or Pacific swampfire, Salicorniapacifica) is a low growing plant that dominates the lower salt marsh. Throughout the summer, its low, bright-green appearance gives the marsh a golf-course-like appearance. By autumn, most pickleweeds are more red than green, turning the vegetation a pleasant autumnal color.

3. Why is it important? • Pickleweed is important to the survival of several saltmarsh residents. It is food for both birds and mammals. It is the primary habitat for the endangered saltmarsh harvest mouse. Some species of migratory ducks eat pickleweed seeds. Some birds use it to build a nest.

4. Why can it grow in the marsh? • Pickleweed adapts very well to salt water and lowering and rising tides. • This plant handles salt in two ways—as a salt excluder and a salt accumulator. Some salt is filtered out at the roots plant’s cell membranes. Excess salt is pumped by other cells to the tips of the plant’s jointed segments. When the cells are full and cannot hold any more salt, the cells break down and die, and it turns red and falls off. • It does not grow near roads, bridges, and levees.

5. Does the marsh need pickleweed? • Pros Cons

6. What is your opinion?