Brief Note: A Significant Seed Bank for Spergularia marina (Caryophyllaceae)

Abstract

The seed bank of Spergularia marina averaged 471,135 seeds m~2 in an Ohio salt marsh, representing the largest seed pool reported in the literature for a flowering plant community. Seed banks perform an important role in maintaining populations of annual halophytes, such as S. marina, in salt marshes, because of the local extinction of plant populations in these unpredictable and highly stressful saline environments.