Ecological Aspects of the Dwarf Brown Form of Spartina in the Dovey Estuary

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Abstract
Plants of a dwarf brown form of Spartina trousendii spread at a rate of about 17 cm/year in any one direction. They show some morphological variability. A marked pattern of shoot densities induces a complementary pattern in the distribution of shoots of the normal Spartina when the latter invades a dwarf brown clump. Denser clumps may exhibit prolonged resistance to invasion by adjoining normal Spartina and there is evidence that this is more readily overcome in the first instance by Puccinellia maritima than by the taller Spartina which then enters at a later stage. Under conditions of grazing a patch of mixed saltmarsh species with little or no normal Spartina is the later result of invasion by Puccinellia.

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