Succulent Ice Plants on the Sand Dunes

Qualities

• For a plant to survive in a sand dune environment, it has to need little water. It also needs a low profile to escape drying winds, a dense root system and a fast growth rate. Ice plant meets all these requirements. As a succulent, it hoards water in its fleshy leaves. It grows low to the ground and forms a thick mat of shallow roots to hold it in place. Its growth rate is 1 foot or more per year.

Propagation

• Ice plant grows fast because it uses two methods of propagation -- seeds and stems. It flowers abundantly, which is what makes it an attractive garden plant, but the pretty flowers each produce hundreds of seeds that germinate quickly to become new plants. It also grows from underground stems called rhizomes, so that every time you pull up an ice plant, the broken stems start a new plant.

Harmful Effects

• Because it grows so prolifically, ice plant will overtake and displace other plants that provide food and cover for native wildlife in the dunes, from beetles to lizards to birds. Because of its shallow root system it is a poor ground cover on slopes -- a heavy rain can displace large mats of it, exposing bare soil to erosion. Ice plant is a moisture hog, depriving other plants of water. Even those who tout a ring of ice plant around a home as a fire break forget that the main cause of fire spread is windblown embers, which can travel for miles, and ice plant is no defense against this.

Removal

• Getting rid of invasive ice plant is a task for heroes. Herbicides will kill all plants, not just ice plant. Solarization -- also known as occlusion -- means covering it up so that it cannot get sunlight. Plowing it under just creates more ice plant from broken stems. The most effective method of eradication yet demonstrated requires countless hours of labor by willing volunteers to pull up the ice plant by hand and replant the cleared area with native plants, but this is a slow and back-breaking process.