Suaeda esteroa W. Ferren & S. Whitmore Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family) Native Estuary Sea-Blight

                                June Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Glabrous perennial, from several oblique to horizontal, generally shallow roots; axis up to 60 cm. long, average ca. 40 cm.; stems decumbent to erect, suffruticose, up to 2 cm. in diameter at base, straw-colored, often with exfoliations, usually much branched in inflorescence, branches erect and with short sharp alternations in course of axis in mature inflorescence; lvs. linear, ascending, entire-margined, acute-tipped, usually falcately curved, plane adaxially, convex abaxially, sessile, up to 6 cm. long, succulent, green, yellow-green, or pale glaucous green, occasionally reddish; withering to straw color and becoming deciduous or persisting as vascular strands towards base of mature plant; broader leaf base, bract-like, and shorter (0.5-2 cm. long) in the infl.; fls. perfect or occasionally unisexual, 1.5-3 mm. broad (fresh material), (1-)3-5 per glomerule from bract-like leaf axils of well-defined inflorescence, subtended by 1-5 unequal, entire-margined, scarious bractlets; perianth lobes 5, carinate (keeled) and cucullate (hooded), with membranaceous marginal flanges; stamens 5; styles (2-)3 parted, glabrous, linear; fruiting calyces 2.5-3.5 mm. broad (fresh material); seeds horizontal in ovary, irregularly bi-convex, nearly orbicular, reddish brown, shiny, 0.8-1 mm. thick, 1.-1.3 mm. broad, 1.2-1.5 mm. tall, pericarp easily removed.

S. esteroa was apparently collected for the first time in 1875 in the vicinity of San Diego.  Although there are numerous 20th century collections made throughout its range, previous investigators have referred the plant to one of four species of the genus: S. californica var. californica, S. calceoliformis, S. moquinii, or S. fruticosa.  The latter is a  plant of European coastal salt marshes and does not resemble S. esteroa.  Using various manuals and floras (e.g., Munz 1959, 1974) collectors have named a great majority of specimens of S. esteroa as S. californica var. californica, a plant restricted to the coast of central California. 

Recognition of S. esteroa as a species restricted to estuaries of southern California and Baja California emphasizes further the floristic differences between central and southern California coastal salt marshes.  The occurrence of S. californica var. californica in coastal habitats of central California, and the occurrence of S. esteroa in southern estuaries south of Point Conception, are new examples of plants that do not overlap in range. (see Madrono reference below).

Habitat:  Estuaries of southwestern North America from Goleta Slough, Santa Barbara County, Ca., south at least to Almejos Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico.  It grows frequently in clay, silt, and sand substrates just above mean higher high water level of salt marshes.  (Ferren, Wayne R. Jr. and Whitmore, Sherry A. "Suaeda Esteroa (Chenopodiaceae), A New Species From Estuaries of Southern California and Baja California". Madrono, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 181-190, 15 July 1983. 

Name:  Suaeda, an Arabic name.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 369).  The Spanish word estero means bay and it is likely that the species name is derived from this meaning.  (my comment).

General:  Occasional in the study area.     Photographed on the North Star Flats and along Back Bay Drive between Big Canyon and the old Salt Works dike.  This plant should be added to the list of native halophytes listed by Joy Zedler in The Ecology of Southern California Coastal Salt Marshes: A Community Profile.  See Spartina foliosa for the complete list.      It is probable that Zedler considered this plant to be S. californica var. californica (a central Calif. species) and elected not to differentiate between it and S. californica var. pubescens as she lists only one species of S. californica. (my comments).       Suaeda esteroa has a listing of 1B on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Vascular Plants of California.   A 1 ranking is most endangered and 4 the least, with 1B being species that are rare throughout their range and occur primarily within California.  The 1B ranking was noted in the CNPS Orange County Newsletter of Nov.-Dec. 2000, changed from List 4.

Text Ref:  See reference notes at the end of the habitat paragraph; Roberts 19.

Photo Ref:  Dec 2 82 # 12; May 5 83 # 13; July 1 83 # 16.

Identity: by F. Roberts.  

First Found: December 1982.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 230.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 6/7/04.

                                   May Photo                                                            December Photo