Ballona Wetlands
Coastal Strand

The coastal strand plant community is one of the rarest in southern California. It is comprised of small plants which are often prostrate, growing horizontally over the wind-blown sand of the dunes they inhabit.  The species of plants here must not only tolerate the blowing and shifting sand, but the salt spray as well.  For this reason, many of them are succulent.

Most of the plants which occur here are endemic (restricted) to this community.  Because of the development of our beaches, these plants are now rare.  Besides direct habitat destruction, an additional threat to native coastal strand species is the spread of aggressive exotic weeds, such as iceplant and Pampas grass.

Some of the species of coastal strand plants at Ballona are the following:

Beach lupine (Lupinus chamissonis)
Beach primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia)
Sand verbena (Abronia maritima and A. umbellata)
Mock heather (Ericameria ericoides)
Dune buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium) - Host for El Segundo blue butterfly
Beach wallflower (Erysimum insulare)
Beach bur (Ambrosia chamissonis)
Sea rocket - not native (Cakile maritima)
Phaecelia (Phacelia ramosissima)

Coast strand description in so. Calif. Natural History Web pages

Other plant communities in the Ballona Wetlands:
Subtidal Areas
Intertidal Mudflats
Coastal Salt Marsh
Coastal Sage Scrub
Riparian and Freshwater Marsh

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