The Jersey shore - our beloved shore. After I got back from my Avalon trip, I remembered having read something about an invasive sedge at the shore. Sure enough - I found the culprit (in print, not in person). Asiatic sand sedge (Carex kobomugi)
In our second installment of looking at plants in Avalon, NJ, we go from the garden to the dune, much more fun. I didn't walk on the dunes, mind you. Just along the designated pathways.
Dunes! Filled with grasses and forbs.
Maybe the most famous dune occupant, beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata). This is the species that is planted in rows whenever there is an effort made to save the beaches from erosion. Through its extensive root system, beach grass binds the loose sandy soils together. This stability allows other plants to colonize the dunes. Avalon has been preserving it's dunes for over 30 years. (They are allowing new development in the salt marshes, however, but that's for another day).
This is a neat plant, trailing wild bean (Strophostyles helvola). It's uncommon in New York City, but fairly common in NJ - because it loves these outer coastal plains. It's a ground-trailing vine in the pea family. This plant is very similar to pink wild bean (S. umbellata), which is rare in NY State.
Note the fruits are encased in bean-like pods.
I'm lucky enough to be able to spend Labor Day weekends down the shore in Avalon, NJ. (And, it is "down the shore", not "at the beach"). Between lying on the beach, under an umbrella and jaunts in the ocean, I, of course, walk the neighborhood and scout out plants. Here, I present "Avalon's Gardens: Dos & Don'ts".
A definite do! Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a great choice for the full sun and well-drained soils that dominate the yards in Avalon. This is a grass that you'd find occurring on its own in such a site. (Ignore the exotic boxwood and juniper flanking it).
A definite don't! Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) are highly invasive! And, what's with the cedar chip fetish? 
Yam-leaved clematis (Clematis terniflora). Looks great, smells nice, invasive. A don't. This photograph was taken in someone's front yard. You know where else I saw this plant? Along the trees of the Garden State Parkway, for miles and miles.
Ah no! Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) - invasive! (And obnoxiously huge, no?)
To end on a positive note - a joe-pye weed(Eupatorium sp.). A definite do, and quite the looker. Its a great nectar plant for butterflies, and has interesting seedheads in winter.
Egads - another one.
From The Boston Globe
A European invader has been sneaking onto the New England coast, infiltrating and undermining the natives.
The large gray willow, a shrub or small tree that spreads rapidly and closely resembles our native pussy willow, has been flying under the radar for years, colonizing the edges of ponds and crowding out rare plants and animals throughout the eastern United States. It was just identified this spring.
Other countries that have been invaded by the species, Salix cinerea, also called the European gray willow, paint a grim picture. New Zealand considers it a major "pest plant". Australia calls it the worst of the invasive willows and warns it can cross-pollinate with other willows.
There is concern about the threat to coastal plain ponds that are host to a whole complex of rare insects, animals and plants, including the Plymouth gentian, rose coreopsis, hyssop hedge-nettle and slender marsh pink, as well as rare dragonflies and damselflies.
The European willow's presence is confirmed for Cape Cod and Rhode Island. It is expected to show up in coastal areas stretching from Maine to Long Island. The Harvard Herbaria in Cambridge, Mass., has a specimen collected in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, in 1967, so the willow has a lengthy head start on efforts to control it. (Yet ANOTHER reason why herbaria are so important!!)
The full article from The Boston Globe
More on Salix cinerea
Beach plum (Prunus maritima) in fruit
This is the chronicle of the rest of my day in Marine Park, where I was to lead a Torrey Botanical Society plant walk.
White Island is a 73-acre former sand bar in the middle of Marine Park Creek. From the 1940s to 1960s, the site was built up through the addition of household garbage and sand. Areas with little sand cover and thus high levels of nutrients support Phragmites and mugwort. Note the sand bags in the photo below - these were put in place to keep the household garbage, the structural foundation of the island - from washing away.
The sections of the island harboring stockpiled sand today support a diverse array of grassland plants. But to get there, you have to hack your way through what seems like miles of Phragmites. It seemed like miles because I am sure it was miles...but only because my sense of direction was off. It took me quite a while to relocate the open grassland.
But finally I did. And it was like discovering a wonderland.
