Nature · Ferns, grasses & other plants

Marram grass

Native · flowers July–August · to about 1 m · sand dunes all round the coast

Ammophila arenaria — Poaceae

Marram is the tough, blue-grey grass that builds and holds Britain's sand dunes. Its rolled leaves resist drying winds and salt spray, and its far-running rhizomes bind loose sand, so the dune grows up around it as it pushes upward through the drift. Marram is a true grass, so, unlike a moss, it is a flowering plant; its spikes of pale golden flowers open in July and August.

How to spot them

▸Dense clumps of stiff, blue-grey to grey-green leaves, rolled in on themselves and sharply pointed
▸Dense, cylindrical, pale yellow-buff flower spike, up to about 20 cm, in July and August
▸Grows on the yellow (mobile) dunes right behind the beach, in shifting sand
▸Long, tough, spreading rhizomes that bind sand
▸Look-alike: lyme grass is bluer with broad flat leaves and grows on the first sand ridges; sand couch grows even nearer the sea on the embryo dunes; marram's leaves are inrolled and thin

How to know it

Its rolled, spiky grey-green leaves and matted roots stabilise dunes so other species can move in

Marram grass — Wildlife Trusts.

Once harvested and woven into mats, fishing nets and shoes on the coasts

Marram grass.

Its English name comes from Old Norse for 'sea reed'

Marram grass — maralmr.

The dominant plant of the 'yellow dunes', it thrives on being buried by sand and declines when the sand stops moving

Marram grass.

A dune grass whose caterpillar visitors include the grayling butterfly

Marram grass — the Wildlife Trusts list it as one of the grayling's grasses.

Scientific name means 'sand-loving' in Greek and refers to its habitat

Marram grass — Ammophila arenaria, from ammos and philos.

Quick-fire facts

•Native and common all round Britain's coasts; the Wildlife Trusts date its flowers to July and August and note its rolled leaves protect against drying out
•Its matted roots stabilise dunes, allowing them to grow up and be colonised by other species
•Harvested historically for woven mats, fishing nets and shoes, a practice that has declined as its ecological importance became recognised
•The name marram derives from Old Norse for 'sea reed'; Ammophila is Greek for 'sand-loving'
•Grows best when regularly buried by fresh sand; when a dune stabilises, marram loses vigour and other plants such as red fescue take over
•Widely planted worldwide for dune stabilisation, and has become an invasive problem on the west coast of North America and in New Zealand and Australia
•Belongs to the grass family, Poaceae, so it is a flowering plant despite its unshowy flowers

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Sources

The Wildlife Trusts — Marram grass