About Chloropyron maritimum (Nutt. ex Benth.) A.Heller
Chloropyron maritimum grows in low clumps. It produces small, thick, gray-green hairy leaves that are often tinted purple. This plant concentrates and excretes salts, which leaves a grainy crust on its foliage. It grows an upright inflorescence several centimeters tall, which holds many fuzz-covered white or cream club-shaped flowers with yellow or purplish tips. Its fruit is a capsule that holds many brown, net-textured (reticulate) seeds. Chloropyron maritimum is native to the Western and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, with a range extending from southern Oregon to Baja California. It is a halophyte, meaning it grows in areas with high salt concentrations, including coastal salt marshes and the inland salt flats of the Great Basin. It is hemiparasitic: it is green and contains chlorophyll, but it also parasitizes other plants by inserting haustoria into their roots to obtain nutrients.
