Pickleweed
Sarcocornia pacifica (perennial)
Salicornia europaea (annual)
Pickleweed is the most common plant in the Hayward Shoreline salt marsh. It provides shelter and habitat for crabs, snails, insects, spiders, birds, and Salt Marsh harvest mice. It grows in salt or brackish water and can live submerged up to half of the time. These plants store salt in the tips of its stems, which become red and fall off in the winter. It flowers starting in August, turns red in October, turns brown in the winter, and green again in the spring.
Height: up to 1.5 feet
Habitat: upper mud flat