Fleshy, grey-green, cylindrical leaflets and flat yellow-green umbels growing from cracks in a sea cliff; crushed leaves smell strongly of carrot and resin
Rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Rock samphire
Native · flowers Jul–Aug · sea cliffs, sea walls and rocky shores, mainly south and west
Crithmum maritimum — Apiaceae
Rock samphire is a tough, aromatic, branching perennial of sea cliffs, sea walls and rocky and shingle shores, with thick, fleshy, grey-green, cylindrical leaflets and flat umbels of tiny yellow-green flowers in July and August. It is a member of the carrot family, and the 'dreadful trade' of gathering it from the cliffs is one of Shakespeare's best-known botanical references. It is quite unrelated to the marsh samphire of the saltmarsh mud.
How to spot them
- ▸Fleshy, grey-green, cylindrical to narrowly flattened leaflets, in few divisions — not feathery, but plump and juicy
- ▸Flat-topped umbels of tiny yellow-green flowers, July to August, like those of a dill or fennel
- ▸Strong, resinous, celery-and-carrot smell when a leaf is crushed
- ▸Grows on cliffs, sea walls and rocks on the beach, south and west coasts of Britain and all around Ireland
- ▸Look-alikes: marsh samphire (a leafless-looking, jointed salt-mud annual) and golden samphire, Inula crithmoides, which has fleshy leaves but yellow daisy-like flowers in saltmarsh and on cliffs; only rock samphire has umbels
How to know it
In King Lear, Edgar describes someone halfway down a cliff gathering this plant, calling it a 'dreadful trade'
Rock samphire — King Lear, Act IV, scene vi.
Its name derives from the French for 'herb of Saint Peter', the fisherman's saint, because it grows on rocks
Samphire is a corruption of herbe de Saint-Pierre — rock samphire.
It shares its name with a salt-mud annual with jointed, leafless-looking stems; this one is a cliff perennial in the carrot family
The salt-mud plant is marsh samphire; this is rock samphire.
Once pickled in vinegar and sold in markets, this cliff-edge crop was gathered from rocks such as those near Dover
Rock samphire.
Fleshy leaves store water and resist salt spray, letting it cling to rock crevices on the south and west coasts and all around Ireland
Rock samphire — an adaptation to salt, wind and drought.
Quick-fire facts
- •Native perennial of sea cliffs, sea walls, shingle and beach rocks; found on the south and west coasts of Britain and all around the coast of Ireland (Plantlife)
- •Flowers July to August in yellow-green umbels; the leaves are succulent, rounded and branched
- •Family Apiaceae — the carrot family, with fennel, parsnip and dill
- •Shakespeare's King Lear: 'Half way down / Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!'
- •'Samphire' is from the French herbe de Saint-Pierre; Peter was a fisherman and the name means 'rock'
- •Golden samphire (Inula crithmoides) is a third 'samphire': a fleshy-leaved member of the daisy family, with yellow flowers, of saltmarsh and cliffs, mainly in the south
- •The genus name Crithmum is Greek for barley, which its seeds are said to resemble
- •Young leaves are edible and used in salads and pickles; it is studied for green biorefinery uses alongside sea aster
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Plantlife — Plants to spot at the seaside this summer
- Peer-reviewed paper (PubMed Central) — Harnessing the value of Tripolium pannonicum and Crithmum maritimum halophyte biomass through integrated green biorefinery