Valuable foredune plants include sea oats, panic grass, beach elder, beach morning glory, railroad vine, seashore dropseed, seashore paspalum and largeleaf pennywort.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils like sand dunes.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not like long term flooding by seawater water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Handles well grows in direct salt wind but away from constant salt spray.
Drought resistance Does not require water once established.

Loves full sun making it the most important stabilizer of sand on the foredunes. It is protected by Florida State Law and it is illegal to collect the flower spike or seed heads in Florida, without a permit.

The roots hold the sand together down to the base of storm wave, making it the re bar of coastal foredunes. Picture right above shows sea oat roots holding together the damaged foredune on Amelia Island FL after Hurricane Matthew.

The text for this grass is a picture, so come back and type desccription in later.

The Beach Elder, a 2-3’ shrub with spreading branches and succulent, smooth light green leaves, grows as a ground cover in open, coastal uplands. It is a fast-grower that thrives in full sun in nutrient-poor soils and drought conditions. It likes salt wind and spray but does not like salt water. Its flowers are green and non-descript.

Habitats: Beach dunes, coastal strand and coastal grasslands.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Pioneer; grows in unconsolidated substrate in direct salt wind and spray.

Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.

Native range: Florida counties (from Escambia east to Franklin; from Nassau south into the Keys; Levy, Hernando, Pinellas and Charlotte) and Georgia.

Blooms are large (about 2”+) and funnel-shaped with white petals and yellow centers. Flowers are generally larger than the leaves. Leaf shape varies, but they ares generally elliptic to oval and lobed with a notched tip. Leaves are leathery, succulent and alternately arranged. Stems are smooth. Seeds are large and borne in capsules.

Like other members of the Ipomoea genus, Beach morning glory flowers live up to their name, blooming in the morning and begin to wilt and close by the afternoon.

The family name Convolvulaceae comes from the Greek convolvere, which means “to wind,” referring to the winding nature of the stems.

Hardiness: Zones 8–10b

Also known as beach morning glory, bayhops, or goat’s foot, railroad vine is a fast-growing, evergreen, perennial commonly found on beach dunes. Flowers are large, funnel-shaped and purple to purplish-pink in color. Its large nectaries and showy flowers attract bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps and ants. Leaves are succulent and rounded, with a notched tip resembling a cloven hoof, hence its species name, pes caprae, which means “goat’s foot” in Latin. Leaves and stems contain a white sap that may help protect it from pests. It has also been used to treat jellyfish stings.

As with other morning glory species, railroad vine flowers open in the morning and last only one day, however, the plant is a prolific bloomer.

Railroad vine occurs naturally in most of Florida’s coastal peninsular counties, and in a few coastal panhandle beaches. It is a pioneer species which DGS includes in most beach restoration/stabilization projects in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia.

Sporobolus virginicus is a low-growing, moderately-fast growing creeping herbaceous grass that forms large patches to spread, growing about 4”-8”tall in full sun and wet-to-moist, moderately-well drained soil. The roots go down to 18” deep. Leaves are 1-4” long and 0.04-0.12” wide two-ranked. Salt crystals are common on leaves and stems.

Though it can grow in poor nutrient soil conditions, but some organic matter will make it thrive. It can handle some salt water flooding and a lot of direct salt wind and spray. Once established, it can tolerate short periods of drought. Its inconspicuous light brown flower blooms all year long.

The Seashore Dropseed is a larval host plant for a number of butterflies.

Seashore paspalum is a native, low, warm season, perennial grass that reaches approximately 20 inches in height. It spreads rapidly, forming dense stands that anchor soil particles and dissipate wav energy, making it an excellent shoreline protector. It is easy to establish, and can withstand moderately high salinity and brief inundation.

It can also uptake heavy metals, and has the potential for phytoremediation of arsenic and chromium contamination related to wood preservatives in wood pilings and wooden dune walkovers.

Seashore paspalum is similar to bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon, and will tack down at the nodes and form a dense turf. Seed heads are similar to other paspalums, and typically form a fork. The leaves are fine, approximately 2mm in width, sharply pointed with a deep blue-green color.

Seashore paspalum is salt tolerant, with some varieties able to tolerate irrigation from sea water.

It has great potential as a lawn grass for homes bordering the dunes.

Largeleaf pennywort or marsh pennywort is a creeping, succulent perennial that occurs throughout the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts but is more common in the more northerly locations of the Florida and Georgia. It can be found on frontal and back dune dune swales, sandy marshes, swamps, and sand flats

This plant is quite distinctive, appearing to be a line of solitary leaves because the slender stem is underground. The round leaves are up to 4-inches in diameter, have scalloped edges, and arise from a center stalk to a height of up to 6 inches. The flowers are clustered on top of a vertical stem about 3-inches tall; fruit and flowers often are present at the same time. Although seed are produced, spread appears to be mostly vegetative by the rhizome.

Neither plants nor seed are available because it becomes a weed in a normal lawn.

An occasional plant of beach dunes and coastal strands on the Florida east coast south to St. Lucie County. The range includes the Atlantic coast through Georgia and the Carolinas.

This erect to decumbent plant is an important dune stabilizer along the southern Atlantic coast. It is often one of the first plants to repopulate the dunes after severe beach erosion.

Tiny white to lavender four-petaled flowers appear from March through October. The petals of Cakile edentula are less than 3mm wide. The leaves are usually fleshy with a wavy margin.

The rocket-shaped fruits are cylindrical, ~1/4 inch wide, 8-ribbed or four-angled, with a blunt or notched tip. The rocket- shaped fruit is in two stages, with each containing at least one seed. The lower stage remains on the plant to reseed the area while the upper stage detaches and travels to seed new locations.

Invasive exotic plants compete with native plant communities for the limited food and water and can caused ecological damage through crowding out native vegetation.