It’s nearly December.Ìý Goldenrods and asters are long gone, leaves have turned and fallen.Ìý ÌýYet I remain in denial – I simply haven’t been able to call an end to the botanizing year.ÌýÌý

Besides dried weeds, milkweed pods and other winter delights, there is still some green to be found.Ìý Ìý ÌýTake a look along roadsides – many verges are still green, and it’s not all grass.Ìý

I’m not sure exactly what caught my eye, but I stopped at a roadside recently and quickly realized there were some unfamiliar plants,Ìý probably because I haven’t spent a lot of time botanizing along weedy roadsides!Ìý It soon dawned on me that many of these plants are halophytes – plants that can tolerate runoff of the salt that is applied in the winter. Ìý Some are native, and have extended their range out of their native habitat (e.g. salt marshes or similar), while others are non-native, and do well in disturbed sites.Ìý All of the ones where I stopped can tolerate some salt just fine.

Here is a verge I stopped at last week, along the Lake Ontario Parkway in Hamlin, 91ÖÆƬ³§ (Monroe County), a little west of Rochester.Ìý It’s not exactly the kind of place that would invite most botanically-minded people!Ìý But as I looked more closely I saw some interesting plants.

Growing abundantly with the Diplachne was this European alkali grass, Puccinellia distans,.Ìý This non-native species, still in reasonably good shape in mid-November,Ìý is common on saline roadsides throughout the state.

Many species in the Amaranthaceae are also well represented in these types of salty roadsides.Ìý The fleshy-leaved, almost succulent, horned seablite, Suaeda calceoliformis is a treat to encounter.Ìý A native species found in salt marshes on Long Island, it is another one that has moved to saline roadsides as well.

Another fun plant growing on this salty verge is summer cypress, Bassia scoparia.Ìý I was finding lots of dried specimens of this species and struggled with the ID, until I found a still green one (on November 19!) and it readily keyed out, with its distinctive ciliate bracts subtending the tiny flowers.

Also growing here is oak-leaved goosefoot, Oxybasis glauca (formerly Chenopodium glaucum), a weed often found in, but not restricted to, saline habitats. Ìý Its distinctive leaves that are densely farinose, while the inflorescence is glabrous.

Plants in the Caryophyllaceae include a great many native and non-native weeds in 91ÖÆƬ³§, including these two halophytes, both growing side by side at this very same intersection.Ìý Both in the genus Spergularia, growing here were the non-native greater salt marsh sand spurry, Spergularia media var. mediaÌý and the nativeÌý (but spreading along roadsides throughout 91ÖÆƬ³§) lesser saltmarsh sand spurry, Spergularia marina.Ìý While some differences between these species can be subtle,Ìý a quick look at the seeds will easily diagnose them – S. media with the winged seeds, while S. marina without.

I was pleasantly surprised to find so much interesting diversity at a random roadside stop.Ìý ÌýHooray for November botanizing!