Biological Flora of Coastal Salt Marshes: Iva frutescens L.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Stalter, R. and Lonard, R.I., 2024. Biological flora of coastal salt marshes: Iva frutescens L. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(4), 809–815. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Iva frutescens L., also known as marsh elder, has a broad distributional range, from the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, to Florida in the United States and from Florida on the Gulf of Mexico to the central Texas coast. Iva frutescens typically occurs in the upper tidal ecotone of salt marshes with more terrestrial upland vegetation. Marsh elder is a hardy shrub that is relatively intolerant to flooding but has a relative tolerance to low soil salinity. Iva frutescens recovers quickly after cutting and fire and may be important in blocking the invasion of Phragmites australis into reconstructed salt marshes. Borrichia frutescens and I. frutescens are associated with the phenomenon of associational resistance. Gall-midge densities in marsh elder stems are reduced when I. frutescens occurs with a second gall-forming host, B. frutescens.