page_title: Ammophila breviligulata
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Ammophila breviligulata / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata) growing on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. The stand that is greener is "Cape variety", and has been introduced to this area; it is native to the Atlantic Ocean coasts of North America. The stand in the foreground that is browner is the native "Champlain beachgrass". October photograph taken in Black Pond Wildlife Management Area, New York.
context_page_description: Ammophila breviligulata is a species of grass native to eastern North America, where it grows on sand dunes along the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes coasts. Beachgrass thrives under conditions of shifting sand, sand burial, and high winds; it is a dune-building grass that builds the first line of sand dunes along the coast. Beachgrass is less vigorous in stabilized sand, and is only infrequently found further inland than the coastal foredunes. On the Atlantic coastline of North America, Ammophila breviligulata has been observed as far south as North Carolina, and is often planted in dune restoration projects. Ammophila breviligulata was introduced to the Pacific coast of North America in the 1930s. It is proving to be invasive, and is increasingly important to coastal ecology and development in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
context_section_description: The leaves of A. breviligulata have deeply furrowed upper surfaces and smooth undersides, and grow 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 0.9 m) tall. The plant's inflorescence is a spike-like panicle that can reach 10 inches (25 cm) long; the seed head appears in late July or August. The species name breviligulata derives from the Latin brevis ("short") and ligula ("tongue"), which refers to a feature of grass leaves called the ligule.
  Ammophila breviligulata is quite similar in appearance and ecology to a second species of beachgrass, Ammophila arenaria (European beachgrass). As Nick Page has summarized, "Ammophila breviligulata is distinguished from A. arenaria by smaller ligules (1–3 mm versus 10–30 mm long in A. arenaria), wider and less inrolled leaves, longer flower spike (25–35 cm versus 15–25 cm long in A. arenaria), and scaly rather than puberulent leaf veins on the upper leaf surface."
caption: Two varieties of American beachgrass growing on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. The greener stand in the distance is Cape variety, and has been introduced to this area; it is native to the Atlantic Ocean coasts of North America. The browner stand in the foreground is the native "Champlain beachgrass" (sometimes considered a separate species A. champlain­ensis).
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