‘JU N E S
Plants on the Sandy Margins
by Douglas Deur
Where the sand begins, life grows
tougher for plants: here, plants must contend
with salt spray, hard winds, and the low
fertility and poor water retention which
plague sandy soils. Most plants which occupy
this zone are hardy. Many grown low to the
ground or have tough tissues, minimizing
battering from driving sands and severe,
salty coastal winds. Others have been able to
occupy the unfertile edges of the sandy
beach, with nitrogen-producing bacteria
contained in nodules on their roots. Many
have become semi-succulent to conserve
water. In evolutionary terms, plants have
made the sacrifices required to occupy the
coastal margins because of a lack of
competition from other plants (particularly
for sunlight). Given a chance, many of these
plants would grow better in well-drained
clearings far from the stresses of the
seashore. Despite the profound
environmental challenges (which would send
lesser plants packing) there are many plants
to be found in the coastal margins; 1 have
walked along stretches of sandy shoreline in
Cannon Beach and produced a list of most of
the highly-visible plants that occupy this
zone.
Walking down to the beach, leaving
the fragmented forests of Sitka spruce (Picea
sitchensis) which occupy the last gaps
between houses and streets, one enters a zone
of stunted spruce, gnarled by salt, sand, and
wind. Here, at the landward end of the beach
vegetation zone, one finds the occasional
shore pine (Pinus contorts),- sparse, oval-
leafed thickets of Hooker’s Willow (Salix
hookeriana), and dense thickets of Salal
(Gaultheria shallon), with waxy, dark-green
oval leaves; Salal bushes are covered with
pinkish, dangling, urn-shaped flowers in the
spring, and plump, tasty, dark-purple berries
in the summer. Nearby, one often finds
shrubs of Evergreen Huckleberry
(Vaccinium ovatum) with small, shiny, dark-
green leaves; these bushes are covered with
pink, bell-shaped flowers in the spring, and
very small, round, purplish-black berries in
the summer. You can usually find Blackberry
bushes in this area too, particularly the
introduced Himalayan Blackberry (Ruhus
discolor, introduced from India, via England),
which has pinkish-white flowers in the
spring, and clusters of juicy, dark, tasty
blackberries in the summer.
Standing alongside these sturdy trees
and bushes, several plants thrive, largely
protected from the wind and salt spray. Here,
one often finds Black Twinberry (Lonicera
involucrata) a shrubby, oval-leafed
honeysuckle, which is dotted by pairs of tube­
shaped yellow flowers in the spring, and
pairs of black berries in the summer. One
also encounters clusters of plants with
bamboo-like stalks, huge leaves, and clusters
of tiny white flowers on top; these are
Knotweeds (Polygonum spp.), introduced
from northeast Asia. Here and there, this
fringe zone is scattered with sturdy, smaller,
plants (many of them “weeds” introduced
from Europe and Asia). There are several
types of thistles -- prickly plants with
Funny how things work here on the Edge. June
Kroft, former neighbor and current columnist
stopped us on our way home the other day, and
allowed as how she was working on her column and
it was begining to get out of hand. A friend had
asked, “June, are you writing an article or a book?”
So we said, “Can we serialize it over a couple of
months?” She allowed as how that might work, if
we consider Christmas an option. So, then we get
this call, and she says Doug Deur is over at her
house, and they get to talking. Doug is a nice young
ethnobotanist who does stuff for the Smithsonian,
and is over there because he knows a lot about the
first people who lived here. June, who is a quilter as
well as a gardener, names her quilts after places
hereabouts, and, being part first people herself, is
curious about the old names of her places, now that
she lives with this land. So, as we said, they get to
talking, and June remembers this letter she got a
while back, okay, last year. Larry A Beaulaurier
wrote and asked about the plants that grew out on the
beach, what were they, and how do they manage out
there? Well, Doug said that, yes, he could answer
that question. What follows is his answer. We
illustrated it from Sally Lackaffs “Wildlife on the
Edge,” and it looks like this might be an ongoing
dialogue of the Garden and Wild. So, June will be
back next month with the begining of her several part
series about how it takes a village to raise a garden.
pinkish-purple flowers -- and a number of
“dandelions” (which include several yellow-
flowered members of the aster family), both
native and introduced; one also finds
introduced clovers, including the white-
flowered White Clover (Trifolium repens).
Here, there are also a few native Asters (Aster
spp.) which do not look like dandelions, but
have purple, daisy-like flowers. Long, bushy
clusters of purple flowers, perched atop stalks
of leafy stalks indicate Hardhack (Spiraea
douglasii), which sometimes punctuates this
high shoreline vegetation. Morning-Glory
(Convolvulus arvensis) — an introduced,
invasive climbing plant with arrow-shaped
leaves and big, showy, funnel-shaped white
flowers -- slithers through the oceanfront
trees and shrubs. In places, small clusters of
domesticated montbrecia (Crocosmia spp., a
native of southern Africa) have escaped from
yards or yard debris, lending showy patches
of color to the sandy margins, with their
sword-shaped leaves and rows of reddish-
orange, tubular flowers on branched, 1 to3
foot-high stems.
Where shrubs and trees are largely
absent, but the sandy soil retains a small
amount of water, one finds Pacific Silverweed
(Potemilla anserina ssp. pacifica) a common
plant with a yellow, buttercup-like flower
and symmetrical rows of shiny, bright-green
leaves with serrated edges. One also finds the
Springbank Glover (Tril'olium wormskjioldii),
looking like other clovers, but with bright
pinkish-purple flowers and narrow, oval
leaves (often with a reddish leaf fringe).
(The roots of both Pacific Silverweed and
Springbank clover were important staple
foods to local Native Americans; among the
Tillamook, the tidelands of Cannon Beach
were recognized as good places to gather
these roots.) Looking like the tall, big-boned
cousin of Queen Anne’s Lace, Angelica
(Angelica lucida), stands tall above these
smaller plants with compound leaves, and flat
clusters of tiny, white flowers atop a thick,
hollow stalk. Scattered around these plants,
one often finds Dock (Rumex spp.) with large
oval leaves, and tall, reddish-brown seed
stalks, the spindly Horsetail (Equisetum spp.),
and tall, light green stalks and lacy foliage of
Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum).
Lower on the beach slope, amidst the
broad-leafed Dunegrass (Elymus mollis) and
the introduced, narrow-leafed European
Beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria), one finds
a number of attractive, flowering plants,
including yarrow (Achillea millefolium),
with lacy, fern-like leaves and fiat-topped
clusters of cream-colored flowers, and Pearly
Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), with
thin leaves and a cluster of small, dry, pearly-
white flowers with yellow centers. With
nitrogen-producing root nodules, some
members of the pea family can survive quite
well in these sandy areas: these include the
Beach Pea (Lathyrus japonicus), with trailing
stems, oval leaves, curling tendrils, dark pink
to blue pea flowers, and long seed pods. The
Seashore Lupine (Lupinus littoralis), is
another member of the pea family,
characterized by small, hairy, palm-like
leaves and pea-like blue-and-white flowers
encircling short stalks.
Lower still, one finds Dune Tansy
(Tanacetum bipinnatum) with lacy, fern-like
leaves and a cluster of yellow, button-like
flowers without petals [similar flowers are
found on a smaller, less leafy relative of this
plant, Brass Buttons (Cotula coronopifloia)
which occupies local beaches and mudflats).
Occasionally, one will stumble across the
waxy leaves and white, rose-like flowers of
the creeping Coast Strawberry (Fragaria
chiloensis) which produces tasty, tiny
strawberries. In areas without heavy salt
spray, one finds the creeping Kinnickinnick
(Arctastophylus uva-ursi) with small, waxy,
oval leaves, pink, urn-shaped flowers, and
opaque, bright red berries. (Kinnickinnick
means “smoke” in Chinook jargon - the
leaves of this plant were smoked by most local
Native American peoples of the coast prior to
the introduction of tobacco.) large, fiat,
foredune slopes are sometimes covered with
the Large-Headed Sedge (Carex
macrocephala), a grassy sedge with short,
wide, yellow-green leaves, and a large,
bristly, cone-like spike. This area is also
commonly home to the native Knotweeds
(Polygonum spp.), lanky, creeping plants
with lance-shaped leaves and oblong spikes
of small, densely-packed, pink flowers. On
rare occasion, one might see the Beach
Morning-Glory (Convolvulus soldanella),
see P lants, page 6