Ammophila arenaria
species of plant
Ammophila arenaria (syn Calamagrostis arenaria) is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is known by the common names marram grass and European beachgrass. It is one of two species of the genus Ammophila. It is native to the coastlines of Europe and North Africa where it grows in the sands of beach dunes. It is a perennial grass forming stiff, hardy clumps of erect stems up to 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) in height. It grows from a network of thick rhizomes which give it a sturdy anchor in its sand substrate and allow it to spread upward as sand accumulates. These rhizomes can grow laterally by 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in six months. One clump can produce 100 new shoots annually.
The rhizomes tolerate submersion in sea water and can break off and float in the currents to establish the grass at new sites. The leaves are up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long and sharply pointed.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ammophila arenaria” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ammophila, arenaria and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q161568. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ammophila arenaria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.