Beach Elder

Iva imbricata

Beach Elder or Seacoast Marshelder grows along the coast from the Florida Keys to Virginia. The light green, succulent leaves are an inch long and the small, inconspicuous flowers have light purple petals. The wind pollinated flowers can cause hay fever, See this for more info, click here.

This is a plant that traps sand on the beach just out of reach of the tides. It will grow up on the dune too and makes a nice mix with Sea Oats, Salt Meadow Cordgrass, Seashore Dropseed, Sea Purslane, Sea Lavender, Bitter Panicum, Dune Sunflower and other coastal plants.

If you would like a beach theme on your property, make sure you have full sun and dry, loose soil. If there is room, try a backdrop of Blue Sawpalmetto and mix together the coastal plants that you like.

Beach Elder may grow to four feet tall and more wide and provides cover for wildlife and seeds for birds and native beach mice if you are on the coast. See this article for more info click here. You may need to give this plant extra fertilizer to get it up to a decent size. Once established, it needs no additional care unless you want to trim it to a lower height.

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