Plants of these communities are adapted to hot, dry, sunny and windy conditions and do poorly when grown in the shade or planted in rich soils or those with poor drainage. Typical plants are sea oats, beach sunflower, seagrape, necklace pod, inkberry, Spanish bayonet and seven-year apple. Brackish tidal flows alternately drain and flood this community. Plants growing here require constantly moist soil, tolerate flooding, and need the abundant supply of nutrients the tides supply. Dominated by mangroves in warmer areas and salt marshes in colder locations, estaurine plants prefer full sun and only tolerate light shading.
Salt tolerance is high.
Common plants are mangroves, saltwort, buttonwood, ox-eye daisies, blackrush, cordgrass and christmasberry. Destructive fires occur at 20 to 80 year intervals. Plants of this habitat die from excessive moisture and poor drainage and from root rots in soils with high organic matter content. They are drought and frost resistant and can endure light shade and slight salt exposure. Definitive plants are sand pine, scrub oaks, rosemary, tallowwood, garberia, scrub palmetto and reindeer moss.