High tide at the unnamed inlet

Tidal environments are beautiful, transient landscapes, changing at every tide. This is the inlet side of Totara Avenue, near Pakawau, near high tide, and the short, clumpy sea rushes that dominate the inlet are common around the Tasman coast. They’re more likely to occur in what are called low-energy environments, where the incoming tide is weak and sediments can accumulate; there is little or no wave action to wash the sediments away. There are over 50 species of rushes in New Zealand and they are, NIWA says in their field identification guide, “notoriously difficult” for amateurs to tell apart. As I’m firmly in the amateur camp as far as most plants are concerned, I only feel comfortable saying these rushes are probably a Juncus species. I feel a bit more confident saying the plant with the big leaves and the long flower stem on the left-hand side of the photo is flax (Phormium tenax). There are only two flax species in New Zealand and the other species occurs in the mountains, not down on the coast.