Circumpolar reedgrass – Pacific silverweed
	Calamagrostis deschampsioides – Argentina egedii
	n = 1
	III.A.3.h.  Halophytic Grass Wet Meadow
	Ecosystem: Tidal

Cicumpolar reedgrass - Pacific silverweed has not been described for Alaska, although it fits well into Viereck, et. al.’s (1992) “Halophytic Grass Wet Meadow” class. 

The single circumpolar reedgrass (Calamagrostis deschampsioides) – pacific silverweed (Argentina egedii) site visited, and perhaps the only one on the lowlands, occurs along Bridge Access Road in Kenai, at the edge of tidal influence, at the mouth of the Kenai River.  

Circumpolar reedgrass, along with Lyngbye’s  sedge (Carex lyngbyei) overtops an open pacific silverweed groundcover.  Arctic daisy (Dendranthema arcticum), beach lovage (Ligusticum scoticum), largeflower speargrass, (Poa eminens) and seaside arrowgrass (Triglochin maritimum) along with a few other herbs, are scattered throughout the site.  

The water table was 15 centimeters below the surface.  A 26 cm thick buried organic layer lies below tidally deposited silt.  The western Kenai shoreline subsided during the 1964 earthquake and then probably rebounded some (Combellick, 1997), so this type may be seral.  Only the highest tides of the year, and storm surges, flood the area.  The pH was measured at nearly neutral (6.4).  This is a jurisdictional wetland.   

Table 1.  Summary of plant frequency and average cover for plants occurring in more than 50% of plots.

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