ABSTRACT
Diversity of emergent wetland plant species was measured in four tidal marshes on the York and Pamunkey Rivers, Virginia. Each marsh represented a different salinity regime (polyhaline, mesohaline, oligohaline, or tidal freshwater). The tidal freshwater marsh had the highest species diversity index of the sites. However, the next highest diversity index was seen in the marsh with the highest salinity, possibly due to an obligate halophytic component absent from the other sample plots. Facultative halophytes dominated the polyhaline, mesohaline, and oligohaline marshes. No similarity existed between the dominant flora of the tidal freshwater marsh and that of the other three marshes.