Product Description
Sand Dunes Gallery Wrapped Canvas Prints
Sand Dunes Gallery Wrapped Canvas Prints
This hardy grass grows on the dunes just above the beach. By anchoring shifting sand and cutting coastal winds, dune grass creates a place where other plants can grow more easily. Beaches and dunes are extreme environments, with pounding surf, blowing sand and blazing sun. Plants and animals here live on the edge, often very susceptible to human impacts. Ammophila is a genus of flowering plants consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses. The common names for these grasses include Marram Grass, Bent Grass, and beach grass. Established coastal sand dunes guard the coast against storm waves that could flood the land beyond the dunes. Conditions here are harsh for plants, few nutrients, almost no water, extreme temperature changes and blowing sand characterize dune habitats. But dune grasss special adaptations make survival possible, its thick, shiny leaves prevent loss of water and also reflect drying sunlight. American dune grass is one of these important pioneer plants. It has long, underground stems that send shoots upward and roots downward. These rhizomes anchor American dune grass and the surrounding shifting sand, creating places where other dune plants can survive. Dune grasses have a symbiotic relationship with underground fungi. The fungi decompose organic material, which supplies nutrients and water to dune grasses. This grass grows from spreading, underground stems that help keep it from being buried by wind-blown sand.
