Waterways Salt Marshes

You'll find salt marshes on stretches of coast that are protected from the wind, weather, and waves. Calmer than normal beaches, they make good hosts for many kinds of plants and flavors that range from delicate to intense, and salty to bitter. The best time to forage here is from spring until the end of summer, when the area will be draped in the green and yellow shades of grasses and herbs. Animals frequently graze in salt marshes, so be thorough when rinsing the plants you gather, especially if they grew near cow dung or horse manure.

At high tide the salt marsh is flooded by the sea, exposing plant life to the wind, weather, sun, and salt. Like beaches, marshes can be divided into imaginary zones that delineate how much salt their vegetation can withstand.

Zone 1: Water and shoreline

The first zone is flat and lies around the water's edge. Here, the sea and waves permit only the sparse growth of plants that can tolerate saltwater. The ground is often muddy and sandy, and at low tide you'll find small green islands or sandbars. In this zone you can gather succulent, flavorful plants like glasswort, seaside arrowgrass, and sea asters.

Zone 2: Flooded areas

The next zone lies further up from the shore. At high tide this part of the salt marsh is flooded, and rarely do any plants grow taller than knee-height. However, small tufts of common scurvygrass and sea plantain can withstand the flooding and salt.

Zone 3: Areas with varying water levels

Above the previous zone, grass and green herbs grow in wide belts interspersed with rivulets of water or small pools remaining from the previous high tide. In fact, high tide may flood this part of the salt marsh, bringing with it dead seaweed that will impart nutrients into the soil while extracting salinity from the soil. Sea rocket, grassleaf orache, and broadleaf pepperweed flourish here, and in open, sandy areas you'll find seaside sandplant and sea beet.

Zone 4: Brackish grasslands

The last zone lies at the highest point of the marsh and merges into the rest of the landscape. Often separated by a sea wall or located near bushes and trees that can't tolerate the salt, this zone is generally dry since the sea doesn’t reach this far. However, salt from the air still makes its way into the soil. Tall grasses and a variety of plants grow here; herbs like wild thyme, sand leek, and mugwort mingle freely with aquatic plants like sea wormwood, rosehips, sea buckthorn, and sea garden angelica.

Wind, weather, flooding, and grazing animals all shape the salt marsh, so the selection of plants can change from year to year.

Spring

First to emerge in spring are salt marsh herbs. If the temperatures are mild they can be picked as early as the beginning of April. Look for spring aquatic herbs especially in the three zones that are closest to the water. If you’re lucky, you may find St. George's mushrooms in the last zone of brackish grassland.

Summer

The salt marsh bursts with life in summer. At water’s edge you'll find succulent herbs like glasswort, while grassleaf orache and sea beet grow in broad swaths further up from the marsh. The brackish grasslands contain stinging nettles and yarrow, as well as rose petals and, later, rosehips. The flavor of many of the aquatic herbs in the wet zones becomes unpleasantly strong around the end of June when they flower and go to seed. By August, however, their flavor will have once again become delicate.

Late summer, fall, and winter

European sea rocket, sea wormwood, and rosehips round out the summer calendar in the marsh’s wetter zones, though some of the plants that have stood in the full sun all season will turn bitter and tough. In very dry summers this bitterness can come earlier in the season, so taste before you pick. In autumn, the brackish grassland fosters blackberries, dewberries, and sea buckthorn. In winter, look for common scurvygrass, which lasts all year.