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SPERMATOPHYTA | Seed Plants |
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AGIOSPERMAE | Flowering Plants |
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Saltmarsh Plants |
| Many flowering plants form saltmarshes on estuarine shores, and have adapted to the saline water that occurs there. Most of the groups are sprawling and low-growing. Many of the groups have reduced their leaves to minimize the water loss, others are succulent. |
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Mangroves |
| They are trees that grow in the saltwater of intertidal mudflats, sheltered coasts or estuaries. Their roots merge and trap fine mud particles. The sediments that are usually associated Mangroves are rich in organics, but they lack oxygen and they are filled with hydrogen sulphide that is produced by sulphur bacteria. Several species are indigenous to mangrove areas. They have shallow roots they and pneumatophores that occur above ground and allows them to respirate (exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen). |
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Dune Plants |
| Important early colonisers of seashore dunes, they stablize the moving sand and allow other plants to settle there. The succession can promote costal shrubs and perhaps even dune forests. The process is very slow and any desturbance can be desatablizing. Because they live in a hostile and dehidrated terrain with shifting sands and salt spray, most of the colonists are lowgrowing with succulent or tough leaves. |