Rare plants are often considered fragile. After all, there’s a reason they aren’t common … right? Yet along San Francisco Bay shorelines, one species not only can be surprisingly robust — it also has the potential to help the region adapt to sea level rise.
The last wild populations of California sea-blite in the Bay Area died out in the 1960s as its shoreline habitat was lost to development — leaving this nondescript shrub locally forgotten by all but the most devoted botanists. Surviving in only one location, 200 miles south in Morro Bay, it’s listed as federally endangered.
“This species is in jeopardy, but it is not a meek, mild, and fragile plant,” says ecologist Peter Baye, who has been incorporating sea-blite into restoration projects for more than 20 years in a reintroduction campaign that’s gradually gaining momentum. “These are robust ecosystem engineers. They just need a little help getting back to where they can colonize.”
Unlike many rare plants, sea-blite can thrive in disturbed human environments, Baye notes. Preferring well-drained tidal shores with sandy or shell-based soils, it can grow among riprap and even on beaches, as well as on the banks adjacent to tidal mudflats, along with pickleweed and gum-plant. Baye has seen it routinely trampled by fishermen, or crushed under boats alongside docks, without suffering…