Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflat (S4)
(formerly short graminoid - forb emergent marsh/mud flat)
Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflats typically occur along seasonally flooded stream shores or on exposed mudflats of recently abandoned beaver ponds. Short, herbaceous plants dominate, including numerous annuals and clumped or spreading perennials. For example, rice cutgrass competes successfully by spreading across the ground surface and rooting from leaf nodes on the horizontal stem. As inundated areas are exposed, plants emerge from buried seeds or seeds recently deposited on the surface by floods. Conditions that favor establishment of this community are frequently temporary, and the vegetation often succeeds to tall graminoid meadow marsh communities.
Characteristic vegetation: Characteristic plants include rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides), mannagrasses (Glyceria spp.), false pimpernel (Lindernia dubia), golden-pert (Gratiola aurea), beggar-ticks (Bidens spp.), St. John’s-wort (Hypericum boreale), marsh spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris) and other spike-rushes, and water parsnip (Sium suave).
Good examples of this community can be found along the Merrimack River in
Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflats sometimes occur as part of low-gradient silty-sandy riverbank system and emergent marsh - shrub swamp systems.
Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflat along Dean Brook at Cape Horn State Forest
(photo by Ben Kimball)
Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflat along Dean Brook
at Cape Horn State Forest (photo by Ben Kimball)
Short graminoid - forb meadow marsh/mudflat
in Canterbury (photo by Dan Sperduto)