Sand Verbena

Sand verbena (Abronia maritima)

This week’s species, Sand verbena (Abronia maritima) is a gorgeous perennially flowering beach plant. Most beach visitors in heavily traveled areas aren’t fortunate enough to be able to enjoy this profusive purple-bloomed perennial, as it’s sensitive to beach traffic. This beach-adapted perennial is a native to the coastlines of southern California and northern Baja California. It’s home to beaches with stable sand dunes near the ocean surf (which are quite rare these days). It requires saline water, primarily obtained through sea spray. It cannot tolerate fresh water or prolonged dry conditions. Its succulent tissues are adapted to isolate and store salt, allowing it to survive in challenging coastal conditions. The plant forms a green mat along the ground, with stems sometimes buried under loose sand. It produces pink or purplish clusters of flowers throughout the year, and the thick mats created by sand verbena stabilize the dunes and provide shelter for various small beach-dwelling animals.

Despite its remarkable adaptations, sand verbena faces challenges due to its habitat being located in heavily traveled beach areas and areas being invaded by non-native species such as ice plant.

Ideally, for the biodiversity and overall beauty of the local beaches around Punta Banda, we would replace the invasive ice plant (which is poor habitat for native wildlife) with this gorgeous perennially flowering native.

For more information, you can explore the Wikipedia page on Abronia maritima.