Between May and July, Pals Bay dresses an ever-diminishing stretch of its dunes in a uniquely pale yellow. It is the period when a cushion of small, oval evergreen leaves culminates in the flowering of one of the most threatened plants in our coastal environment: the sea statice or Stachys maritima Goalkeeper.
It has virtually disappeared from the entire peninsula, except for the Empordà coastline. In Pals Bay it has survived at Fonollera Beach, the Basses d'en Coll, the mouth of the Ter and Radio Liberty, the area where it is most securely rooted.
The intense solar radiation, high salinity, low nutrient availability, fresh water and coastal rains in winter and spring in maritime sandy areas are extreme environmental conditions that have provided it with a habitat in which to develop to a height of between 10 and 40 cm. But it now faces another pressure: human activity.
In recent decades we have witnessed a severe regression of the species due to the fragmentation and loss of dunes, its habitat. This has left it strongly isolated in only a few locations across the country. The main factor is the construction of houses and roads along the entire coastline. Other factors include individuals being trampled and invasive exotic flora such as cat's claw –Carpobrotus edulis-, widely used in gardening, which occupy and displace the core of sea stakings and highlight the fragility of the dune cordon system, which is why they were removed from all front-line seafront gardens.
Our plant is classified as an endangered species (EN), making it one of the 85 species in Catalonia with the highest risk of extinction., protected in Annex 1 of Decree 172/2008 establishing the Catalogue of Threatened Flora of Catalonia. You can consult detailed and up-to-date information on it in the exhaustive article Published on the Plant Conservation Biology Portal.
Location of the current populations of’Stachys maritima on the Iberian Peninsula, mainly on embryonic mobile dunes or fixed coastal dunes with communities of Crucianellion maritimae. In 2001, fewer than 200 individuals were found on the Costa Brava (Barriocanal & Blanché 2002). Graph taken from the article «Sea Spines» by Cèsar Blanché, Carles Barriocanal, M.Carmen Martinell, Sergi Massó & Jordi López-Pujol (2010), published in the Portal de Biologia de la Conservació de Plantes (Plant Conservation Biology Portal). Population codes are included in parentheses. PPAL (in blue) is the code used in the genetic diversity analysis to designate the set of population nuclei on Platja de Pals where it was most represented (la Fonollera beach, les Basses d’en Coll, opposite the Grau beach apartments, Palsmar, Radio Liberty, and les Dunes apartments on Racó beach), as well as small locations in the dunes of Sant Martí d’Empúries, la Rovina beach, the Fluvià river mouth, and in Baix Llobregat, where in 2008 the survival of a small population of only eleven individuals was reported (López-Pujol et al. 2008).
Threats and biotic competition from’Stachys maritima in the different populations: (A) Evening primrose at Rovina Beach; (B) state of Rovina Beach in the summer of 2008, with massive growth of’Snakegourd; (C) Arundo donax and waste at the mouth of the Fluvià; (D) Bursar weed subspecies. Italian about an individual of’Stachys maritima at Sant Martí d'Empúries; (E) Carpobrotus spp. of the Pals Beach apartments; (F) wheel of a trailer on an individual at the slipway of Pals Beach [Photographs: (A), (B), (C), (D) and (E), S. Massó; (F), J. López‐Pujol]. Images extracted from the article «Sea Stalks» (Blanche et al., 2010) published on the Plant Conservation Biology Portal.
Rabassa's’Stachys maritima which shows well-developed subterranean organs, with the emission of lateral stems corresponding to previous years (dry periods) and demonstrating the longevity of many of the existing individuals. A census of emergent individuals from the current year would only show the tender shoots that form a leaf rosette (Photograph: M. C. Martinell). Image taken from the article «Sea Spikelets» by Blanche et al., 2010 Published on the Plant Conservation Biology Portal.
Population trends in the different localities of’Stachys maritima from the four-year monitoring data of the «Singular Vascular Flora» study by Sandra Saura-Mas and Miquel Jover.
Figure A. Number of breeding individuals and Figure B. Area of occupancy over time. During the monitoring period from 2008 to 2013 a total of four localities were detected with Stachys maritima. In Figures A and B we can see how, for three of its populations, both area size and number of individuals have declined, at Pals and on the beach at the mouth of the Ter, where by 2010 it was already in a critical state, and in 2013 it disappeared. The same thing happened to the fourth population, the largest, at Radio Liberty, which saw its numbers drastically reduced in 2013. In some stretches of the dune cordon at Pals Beach, a process of ruderalisation and anthropogenic activities has occurred in the dune system communities, and the fragmentation of populations, with very low genetic flow, could be the main reasons for the regression of this species.
Consequences for Stachys maritima if the Rodors sectors are urbanised
The recently approved Strategic Environmental Assessment Master Plan for the review of unsustainable land on the Girona coast (Power Distribution Unit), Consider the critical regression state of the’Stachys maritima, and warns of the opportunity to recover the population of this endangered species in the Rodors dunes at Pals Beach., very important for their exceptional nature and extent, at present free of developments. Below is an extract from the document:
«Dunes with pine marten or pinyer pine woodland are an extremely scarce habitat in Catalonia due to the urbanisation processes of the second half of the 20th century. Fragmented areas remain in the Llobregat Delta and on the Girona coast in two main units: the coastal zone with a backdune at Pals Beach, and the extensive fossilised aeolian mantel that originates at Sant Martí d'Empúries, crosses the Montgrí, re-emerges at Pals and also traverses part of the Begur mountains. Part of this system was still mobile at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Rodors sectors represent an important opportunity to recover the population of a plant classified as “endangered”: Stachys maritima..Recent literature (Blanche et al., 2011) provides very clear clues about the potential of this territory as a site for recovering this species. Specifically, this publication cites a small population at a roundabout in the Pals Mar housing estate; and, most notably, a population that appeared in a sand quarry in Regencós, where sand had been stored from some beach and which carried propagules that germinated. This species is very scarce, but ecologically adapted to the sandy medium, which implies resistance to ‘burial and the ability to maintain viable propagules in the sand for years. Therefore, in the case of the sectors on the Pals plain, it cannot be considered an impact on a protected habitat or species; however, there is great potential for the recovery of a unique species.«
The Power Distribution Unit temporarily reclassifies the Rodors sectors with the aim of preserving their very rare and highly threatened habitat, but leaves open the possibility of urbanising it later with 400 new homes as a second residence in four large developments. The failure to permanently conserve Rodors, which could offer a significant opportunity to restore the population and attain minimally viable population (MVP) levels, jeopardises the survival of the species.’Stachys maritima in Catalonia, and contradicts the Resolution 332/XI of the Parliament of Catalonia, on Pals Beach 250-00424/11 where it is required “To protect the Rodors – Roca Blanca sectors in Pals by expanding the PEIN area.”
According to the Expert opinion, issued by environmental scientist Josep Ramon Aragó in appeal no. 217/2008, with a judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of 22 February 2011, which determines to preserve Rodors, The development of pine forests on dunes within the Rodors and Interpals sub-areas would mean the disappearance of an extraordinary number of species. protected or endangered Protected by Legislative Decree 2/2008 on native wild fauna.
From Montgrí, Medas Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park Various environmental organisations carry out several projects with the aim of conserving the dunes and thus benefiting the populations of’Stachys maritima among other species of flora and fauna such as the Kentish plover. Unfortunately, the indiscriminate urbanisation of coastal and inland dune systems across our country, carried out under criteria that are insufficient in terms of environmental sustainability, places the protection of such unique flora and fauna, and of the entire range of distinctive landscapes, in serious jeopardy.
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We thank John Feliu Montge the co-editing of this article.
Article creation date: 22/2/2021.
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