Hazy mauve carpets on the upper saltmarsh in July and August, made of branched clusters of tiny blue-lilac flowers over leathery oval leaves
Common sea-lavender, Limonium vulgare.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Sea lavender
Native · flowers Jul–Oct · saltmarsh and muddy creeks
Limonium vulgare — Plumbaginaceae
Common sea-lavender turns the upper saltmarshes of the English and Welsh coasts a hazy mauve in high summer, its branched clusters of tiny blue-lilac flowers standing over rosettes of leathery oval leaves. It is not a lavender at all and has no scent; it is a cousin of thrift, and it gets rid of surplus salt through special glands on its leaves. Bees, wasps, butterflies and moths flock to the nectar.
How to spot them
- ▸Flat-topped, much-branched clusters of tiny blue-lilac flowers on stiff stems up to about 30 cm
- ▸Basal rosette of leathery, oval to spoon-shaped leaves, each with a distinct midrib and side veins
- ▸Carpets of colour on upper saltmarsh and along muddy creeks, mainly in England and Wales
- ▸Flowers July to October; the papery calyx persists and dries well
- ▸Look-alike: thrift, in the same family, has round pink pompoms on leafless stalks over grassy tufts; sea-lavender has branched, lilac heads and broad, leathery leaves. Rock sea-lavenders on cliffs are separate, hard-to-tell species
How to know it
Despite its name it has nothing to do with the herb of the same colour, has no fragrance, and is in fact a cousin of thrift
Sea lavender is in the family Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family, with thrift.
Special glands on its leaves excrete surplus salt, letting it live where tides regularly flood the roots
Sea lavender — salt glands, an adaptation to saltmarsh life.
Bees, wasps, butterflies and moths feed on the nectar of this saltmarsh plant, whose dried flowers hold their colour and shape for arrangers
Sea lavender.
It sits in the saltmarsh zone above the samphire and cord-grass, growing with sea aster and sea purslane
Sea lavender.
Norfolk's Stiffkey and Blakeney marshes are famous for the purple haze this plant makes in mid-summer
Sea lavender.
Quick-fire facts
- •Native perennial; up to about 30 cm tall; flowers July to October (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Family Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family, shared with thrift and the garden plumbago
- •Found only around the coast, mostly in England and Wales
- •It excretes surplus salt through glands on its leaves — a classic saltmarsh adaptation
- •The Wildlife Trusts describe lilac-tinged expanses of flowering sea lavender in late July and August on saltmarshes in the south
- •Zonation on a saltmarsh: samphire on the lowest mud, then cord-grasses and sea purslane, then sea aster and sea lavender higher up (Wildlife Trusts)
- •The dried flower heads hold shape and colour, which is why garden sea lavenders (Limonium sinuatum and relatives) are popular with flower arrangers
- •Several similar sea-lavenders exist: lax-flowered, lesser and rock sea-lavenders — the rock sea-lavenders are a group of local specialists of cliffs and rocks
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Common sea-lavender
- The Wildlife Trusts — Saltmarsh and mudflats