389 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 M.A. Khan et al. (eds.), Sabkha Ecosystems Volume V: The Americas, Tasks for Vegetation Science 48, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27093-7_21 Distichlis palmeri: An Endemic Grass in the Coastal Sabkhas of the Northern Gulf of California and a Potential New Grain Crop for Saltwater Agriculture Cylphine Bresdin and Edward P. Glenn Abstract Extensive coastal sabkhas in the northern Gulf of California in North America are colonized by Distichlis palmeri, an endemic grass that pro- duces a grain that was harvested as a staple food by native Cocopah peo- ple. It has been considered as a potential perennial grain crop for salt water agriculture. Previous short-term trials have shown good vegetative growth but low percentage of flowering stems resulted in low grain yields. In these trials, we grew D. palmeri outdoors in paddy-style (flooded) conditions in 26–34 g L -1 sea salt solutions. Reproductive maturity was reached 4 years after initial establishment of plants from seed, with nearly all stems pro- ducing male or female flowers. Mixtures of male and female plants (1:3) produced 231–310 g m -2 of grain, with nutritional content similar to domesticated grains. These yields are within the range of other grain crops and demonstrate the potential for further developing D. palmeri as a global crop for salinized soils and water supplies. 1 Introduction While sabkhas are usually associated with North Africa and the Middle East, they occur on all continents except Antarctica (Yechieli and Wood 2002). An extensive set of coastal salt flats occurs in the Northern Gulf of California, Briere (2000) where they are called esteros or negative estuar- ies (Briere 2000; Brusca et al. 2006; Glenn et al. 2006). In this extreme desert environment (less than 100 mm year -1 of rainfall) and with a tidal range of up to 7–9 m, esteros typically form at the mouths of rivers that are no longer connected to the sea. They are flooded and drained twice a day with hypersaline seawater (36–42 g L -1 ) through a network of tidal creeks bringing seawater as much as 10 km inland at high tide and exposing vast mudflats and saltflats at low tide (Fig. 21.1). Occurring mainly along the Sonoran (eastern) coastline above 28° N, esteros extend from the C. Bresdin (*) • E.P. Glenn Environmental Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, 2601 East Airport Drive, Tucson, AZ 85756, USA e-mail: cylph@email.arizona.edu 21 cylph@email.arizona.edu