The Natural Communities of Virginia
Classification of Ecological Community Groups
SECOND APPROXIMATION (Version 2.2)
Inland Salt Marshes
Inland salt marshes are extraordinarily rare communities known in Virginia only from a small mountain valley near Saltville, Smyth County. Similar but somewhat compositionally different communities are known from inland salt flats in New York and Michigan. The unique habitat at Saltville, consisting of seasonally flooded basin wetlands fed by saline springs, has been greatly reduced by industrial salt mining, hydrologic alterations, and grazing. However, small remnant marshes remain, supporting a very rare type of emergent vegetation composed largely of several remarkably disjunct halophytes. The salinity of water in these marshes varies over time from entirely fresh to polyhaline. Dominants are saltmarsh bulrush (
Schoenoplectus robustus, = Scirpus robustus), black-grass rush (
Juncus gerardii var.
gerardii) and, on a few small exposed mud flats, small spikerush (
Eleocharis parvula). Also present are hastate orach (
Atriplex prostrata), jointed glasswort (
Salicornia virginica), foxtail barley (
Hordeum jubatum), broad-leaved cattail (
Typha latifolia), hard-stemmed bulrush (
Schoenoplectus acutus, = Scirpus acutus), spotted jewelweed (
Impatiens capensis), eastern rose-mallow (
Hibiscus moscheutos ssp. moscheutos), and several non-native weeds. It appears likely that the community type represented at Saltville is endemic to this site.
Reference: Ogle (1981).
Click on the images below to open a larger image in a separate window.
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Inland salt marsh around a pond in the Ridge and Valley region of Saltville, Smyth County. The dominant graminoid is black-grass rush (Juncus gerardii var. gerardii).
Photo: Tom Rawinski.
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REPRESENTATIVE COMMUNITY TYPES:
The singular Virginia representative of this group has been well documented by field notes and, in a floristic study, by Ogle (1981). The community type was named by inspection, which is probably acceptable in this case since none of its
important and diagnostic species occur in other natural wetlands of
the Central Appalachians.
Click on any highlighted CEGL code below to view the global USNVC description provided by
NatureServe Explorer.
- Schoenoplectus robustus – Juncus gerardii – Hordeum jubatum – Atriplex prostrata Herbaceous Vegetation
Ridge and Valley Inland Salt Marsh
USNVC:
CEGL006234
Global/State Ranks: G1/S1
Endemic
