August 20th 2008 • HOME •

Flora: Plants that could keep Fire Island from washing away

Seabeach amaranth: an important endangered annual plant. Illustration. One large amaranth can create a sand mound of a couple cubic meters. This plant likes to grow in a crucial zone for beach preservation, just above the high tide line, among the shifting sands at the base of the dunes. Unfortunately, it cannot stand up to vehicular traffic, and by 1990s it had nearly disappeared from its natural range along the east coast. Interestingly, while we are often reminded of how much damage is done to the beaches by storms, the storms of recent years seem to have aided the comeback of the seabeach amaranth.

Seabeach Knotweed. This plant grows (and holds sand) where nothing else will live. Though designated a New York State "species of concern," in 2001 FINS counted 250 specimens of it.

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Updated 21 May 2003.