O we do like to be beside the seaside ...

Wildflowers at the seaside make an impressive sight for the summer holidays. Thrift, or sea pink, is found on almost every type of seashore and even stone walls near the coast, their globes of bright pink flowers held on tall stalks above cushions of green leaves. The old threepenny coin featured the thrift, maybe as a pun on its name or perhaps because it is amazingly tolerant of high copper levels in the soil, which would kill most plants.

Restharrow got its name from its tough wiry roots that could stop field ploughs in their tracks. It often sprawls on sand and dunes as a mat of dense leaves with pink pea-like flowers. Its close relative the sea pea is a beautiful but increasingly rare purple flower, its large cover of oval-shaped leaves crawling over shingle on the south-east and east coasts of Britain. The flowers develop into pods with big, buoyant seeds that float away at sea where they stay viable for up to five years.

Some coastal plants are well worth foraging for. Sea beet grows in big clumps of dark, glossy foliage on shingle beaches and many other types of coast. It is the ancestor of beetroot and spinach, and its young leaves can be eaten like spinach – although their flavour is not as strong, it comes ready salted. Sea purslane grows on saltmarshes with silvery grey, spear-shaped leaves and tiny nobbly pink flowers; its young leaves make a good ingredient for salads with their salty flavour.

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