Greasewood and saltgrass flat, Warner Valley, Lake County
(John A. Christy, PSU Oregon Biodiversity Information Center)

Alkaline wetlands are restricted to arid lands east of the Cascade Range. They include seasonally or intermittently flooded playas, marshes, and lakes, where alkaline soils and intense evaporation tend to concentrate salts in soils and water. They may support large populations of plants and animals found nowhere else in arid regions, and in Oregon they are particularly well known as breeding or foraging sites for vast quantities of migrating birds. Many of the same species of plants and animals occur in both interior alkaline wetlands and estuarine wetlands along the coast, and the term "brackish marsh" has been applied to both. Playas or "salt flats" occur in basins with interior drainage that lack any exit streams. During years of high precipitation, runoff and meltwater accumulate in valley bottoms or depressions. Small to large, shallow lakes may form, or existing lakes may expand to flood areas around their edges. Playas are dependent on regional climatic cycles, and their flooding is by definition intermittent and often fleeting. Water may persist into the growing season for a few weeks, a month, or rarely years, and sites may not flood at all for years at a time. Playas are typified by flat topography, highly alkaline or saline soils, and no or scant vegetation that is distinctive and adapted to saline or alkaline conditions. Animals are adapted to the intermittent hydrology and may emerge only every few years when conditions are right.

Alkaline Wetland

Habitat: Basins and flats, edges of alkaline lakes and ponds, playas
Water regime: Perennially to seasonally flooded
Water chemistry: Saline or alkaline

Ecoregion*: BM = Blue Mountains, BR = Northern Basin and Range, CB = Columbia Basin, CR = Coast Range, EC = East Cascades, KM = Klamath Mountains, WC = West Cascades, WV = Willamette Valley
	Scientific & Common Name	Global & State Rank	Ecoregion
	Allenrolfea occidentalis Wet Shrubland Iodine bush (NS)	G3S2	BR
	Artemisia cana ssp. bolanderi / Deschampsia cespitosa Wet Shrubland Silver sagebrush / tufted hairgrass (Crowe et al. 2004: 232; NS)	G2S2	BM, BR, EC
	Artemisia cana ssp. bolanderi / Eleocharis palustris Wet Shrubland Silver sagebrush / common spikerush (NS)	G3S2	BM, BR
	Artemisia cana (ssp. bolanderi, ssp. viscidula) / Leymus cinereus Wet Shrubland Silver sagebrush / giant wildrye (NS)	G1S1	BR
	Artemisia cana ssp. bolanderi /Muhlenbergia richardsonis Wet Shrub Meadow Silver sagebrush / mat muhly (NS)	G3S3	BR
	Artemisia cana ssp. bolanderi / Deschampsia cespitosa Wet Shrubland Silver sagebrush / tufted hairgrass (Crowe et al. 2004: 232; NS)	G2S2	BM, BR, EC
	Artemisia cana (ssp. bolanderi, ssp. viscidula) / Poa secunda Wet Shrubland Silver sagebrush / curly bluegrass (NS)	G2S	BR
	Artemisia cana (ssp. bolanderi, ssp. viscidula) - Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana / Poa cusickii Shrub Grassland Silver sagebrush - Vasey sagebrush (Crowe et al. 2004: 236; NS)	G2S2	BM, BR, EC
	Bolboschoenus maritimus Marsh (interior alkaline) Alkali bulrush (NS)	G4S4	BR
	Distichlis spicata Alkaline Wet Meadow Saltgrass (interior alkaline) (Christy 2014: 31; NS)	G5S4	CB, BM, BR
	Distichlis spicata - (Amphiscirpus nevadensis) Alkaline Wet Meadow Saltgrass - (Nevada bulrush) (NS)	G4S4	BM, BR
	Eleocharis rostellata Marsh Beaked spikerush (Christy 2016: 28; NS)	G3S3	BR
	Lepidium davisii Playa [Provisional] Davis pepperweed (ODA species profile)	G3S1	BR
	Leymus cinereus Bottomland Wet Meadow Giant wildrye (Crowe et al. 2004: 151; Wells 2006: 148; NS)	G1S1	BM, BR, CB, EC
	Leymus cinereus - Distichlis spicata Alkaline Wet Meadow Giant wildrye - saltgrass (NS)	G3S3	CB, BR
	Leymus triticoides Wet Meadow Sea-milkwort - Sandberg bluegrass (Christy 2016: 32; NS)	G2S2	BR
	Leymus triticoides - Poa secunda Wet Meadow Creeping wildrye - alkali bluegrass (NS)	G2S2	BR
	Muhlenbergia asperifolia Wet Meadow Alkali muhly (Christy 2014: 39; NS)	G3S2	BR
	Puccinellia lemmonii - Poa secunda Wet Meadow Vegetation Lemmon's alkali grass - Curly bluegrass (NS)	G1S1	BM, BR, EC
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Achnatherum hymenoides Wet Shrubland Greasewood /Indian ricegrass (NS)	G4S3	BR
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Atriplex confertifolia - (Picrothamnus desertorum, Suaeda nigra) Wet Shrubland Greasewood / shadscale - (bud sagebrush, shrubby seepweed) (NS)	G5S3	BR
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Distichlis spicata Wet Shrubland Greasewood / saltgrass (NS)	G4S4	BR
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Leymus cinereus Wet Shrubland Black greasewood / giant wildrye playa (NS)	G3S2	BR
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Nitrophila occidentalis - Suaeda nigra Wet Shrubland Black greasewood / borax weed - bushy seablite (NS)	G5S5	BR
	Sarcobatus vermiculatus / Suaeda nigra Wet Shrubland Greasewood / seablite playa (NS)	G4S4	BR
	Schoenoplectus acutus Marsh Hardstem bulrush (Christy 2004: 141; Crowe et al. 2004: 70; NS)	G5S5	BM, BR, CB
	Schoenoplectus americanus Western Marsh (interior alkaline) Chairmaker's bulrush (interior alkaline) (Crowe et al. 2004: 133; NS)	G3S3	BM, BR, CB, EC
	Schoenoplectus pungens Marsh (interior alkaline) Common three-square bulrush (interior alkaline) (NS)	G3S3	BR
	Spartina gracilis Wet Meadow Alkali cordgrass (NS)	G3S2	BM, BR
	Spartina pectinata Western Wet Meadow Prairie cordgrass (NS)	G3S2	BM, CB
	Sporobolus airoides - Distichlis spicata Wet Meadow Alkali saltgrass - alkali sacaton (NS)	G4S3	BR

Authored by John A. Christy, Wetlands Ecologist, (ORBIC) Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (2012 rev. 2017)