Where salinity is high, typical salt-marsh plants include pickleweed and fleshy jaumea. Low brackish marshes, where fresh water from the river has diluted incoming ocean water, are often characterized by sedges and grasses, such as arrowgrass and Lyngby's sedge. Farther upland along the estuary, high salt and brackish marshes occur where they are flooded less than daily, usually by the highest tides of the month. Here, tufted hairgrass, common spike rush, meadow barley, and Pacific silverweed are often dominant. A number of other plants grow in the low and high, salt and brackish marshes.
Species also overlap a good bit, especially in transition zones between low and high marshes.
Farther inland, as salinity progressively diminishes, brackish marshes give way to freshwater wetlands. Here, cattails and purple loosestrife line the edges. Just beyond, bullrushes grow, often next to water lilies or spatterdock. Farther out, in the open-water areas, a variety of aquatic plants flourish. We're still learning about the great number of animals that reside in or frequent the marshes.