salt marsh grasses

One lasting lesson I learned from environmental education at Antioch New England was how to tell the regular high tide zone from the "spring" tidal zone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide (Wiki's description of the tides
The grass closest to us is Spartina Patens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartina_patens ... "you can pat it " (this is a trick to help kids but I cling to it) and it is only subjected to the highest of tides (Spring tides). The spikier grass is Spartina Alterniflora: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartina_alterniflora and it can tolerate the repetitive flooding of the regular tides. The poofy plant in the foreground is Seaside goldenrod which can handle an occasional salt water flooding.