As the dune begins to form, the marram grasses colonize it and enhance its growth by arresting grains of sand. From the bayshore the pioneer is reedgrass. Dune formation assume the form of a continuous ridge on which the marrams spread. Sea myrtle arises seaward of the reedgrass on the bayshore. A trough is formed in advance of the initial dune, which leads to the formation of the primary dune. This is colonized by dune grasses, which accelerate its formation and stabilize it. Beach heather ventures among the dune grass; bayberry and beach plum extend from the bayshore towards the backdune. As the primary dune grows, a dunegrass savanna develops in the trough, the marram and the beach heather consolidate the original dune, while woody plant material, notably red cedar, grows in the backdune and poison ivy joins the bayberries near the bayshore. In the final stage the beach remains devoid of vegetation, but the primary dune is a thick stand of dune grass while in the trough nestle low myrtle, beach plum and smilax thickets, which have replaced the grass. The face of the inland dune is covered by beach plum and parthenocissus, interspersed with grass, while in the backdune there is a red cedar-pine woodland, which graduates into a swampy red cedar woodland and thence to the reedgrass, thistles, and to the bay.