This Maritime Marsh-Elder or Hightide-Bush is a barely woody, usually leggy shrub in the Aster (Composite ) Family that has a native range from the coastal area of southern New England down along Florida over to south Texas in brackish and saline wetlands. It bears long, narrow, opposite leaves with pointed apexes and having some marginal big teeth. It bears rounded flower clusters with a green cap and whitish and yellowish flower parts hanging down in late summer and early autumn that are not showy. I first saw this plant listed in the catalogue of a native plant nursery. Some native pant nurseries and conservation nurseries offer this species for embankment restoration and stabilization, and it can be grown in a regular landscape, though it is not really showy. (The Eastern Groundselbush (Baccharis halimifolia is similar and native to the same region and often a companion plant, but has smaller, broader leaves that are alternate, little upright white flowers, and white hairy seed clusters.)

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