Revere Beach -- plus -- plant id help?

[urbpan]

An unknown succulent plant on the beach.





Any guesses?



I saw a gull eating something and I had to see what it was--it was a dead dogfish!



Their egg-cases were all over the beach, but I hadn't seen the animal in person before.

Comments

[ankhanu.livejournal.com]

That could be glasswort or something similar. I'm forgetting my dune plants though, it's been a while.

The dogfish is definately an interesting find :)

[candent.livejournal.com]

It kind of looks like Trailing Ice Plant.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

oh gosh, the dogfish comes back to haunt me. We dissected one in freshman bio. We got, um, very close to the beast:


Lab partner Stacey looks on as Eileen forges a relationship with the lab project.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

Oh, and egg cases? Fertilization is internal for these vertebrates and birth is live, I believe. We found a few developing pups in our dogfish.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap. Who makes mermaid's purses then? Common skates? We found a dead one of those, too.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think those belong to skates. Lots of dead things on the beach, eh?

We're both right

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

A little research turns up that "Sharks exhibit a great diversity in reproductive modes. There are oviparous (egg-laying) species and viviparous (live-bearing) species."

Mermaid's purse: "This name is given to the egg cases of many sharks and skates. This tough, protective purse-shaped egg case contains one fertilized egg. A young shark or skate later emerges from the mermaid's purse. Shark species that utilize this mode of reproduction include the swell shark, dogfish, and angel sharks."

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/education/questions/Biology.html#birth

The dogfish available through the Carolina Biological supply co are not specified, but I bet they are a viviparous species.

Re: We're both right

[droserary.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if different species of dogfish exhibited different methods of reproduction. As I was looking around, I noticed the diversity in the genus and recalled that we never were told what species of dogfish we were slicing and dicing. Now I know it had to be one of the viviparous species! Good detective work :-)

[abearius.livejournal.com]

It looks like someting we in California call "Pickleweed"

[red-the-squeaky.livejournal.com]

That's what we call it up here in Seattle as well. It's great fun to feed to a field group of 5th graders!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I wish it was (which is also what glasswort is)!

Nice patterson film still icon!

plant id

[pycnanthemum.livejournal.com]

I think that plant is Cakile edulenta, also known as sea rocket (mustard family).

Re: plant id

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I do believe you are correct.

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Mermaid.htm

...Mermaid's Purses, containing the eggs or young of the Lesser-spotted Dogfish...