The plant is 30-75 cm high. It grows on sandy and rocky beaches with washed-up seaweed. The plant has a large root net which maintains it at high tide and in heavy storm weather. Almost all parts of the plant are edible. The young plants taste best in spring. But never pick more than you need. What good would it do to practice violence against the plant? The fruit can be spread to another place of growth both by the wind or by the sea.
The plant is 50-120 cm high. The stem and leaves are very rough, they feel stinging. The inflorescence is long and consists of many one-sided scorpioid cymes. The corolla is first red, later blue. Common Viper’s bugloss come in blue and purple hues, occasionally in white. The corolla is 1.5 to 2 cm long and inclined funnel-shaped. Each flower has 5 long red stamens with blue anthers. The stigma is long and twofold, it looks like a snake tongue – hence the name. The nectar is produced at the bottom of the crown, but as the flower is relatively wide, the nectar is easily accessible, making the plant a desirable stopover for bees. It thrives on light soils and doesn’t need much. This is why it is common on the beach and surrounding areas.
The sea lyme grass is a multi-annual grass with a tubular, upright growth. The flowering takes place in June-July, when you see the high shoots sticking over the leaf bulb. The root network of the plant is enormous and for the same reason well suited for retaining the sand. Even a violent high tide doesn’t bother the plant.
When lyme grass sets seeds, it is gladly visited by sparrows and other granivorous birds that appreciate the dish.
The sea sandwort grows on sandy and rocky beaches, always near the coast. The sea sandwort is very common in suitable habitats in coastal areas across the whole country.
The sea sandwort is a perennial herb and has insect pollination of the flowers, as there are small honeyglands at the base of the pistils or between the bases of the stamens.
It also has effective vegetative propagation with its far-reaching rhizome and typically grows in dense bushes.
A 40-80 cm tall wild herb of the Rumex genus. Sorrel is dioecious, and if you want seeds from the plants, you need to have both male and female plants for the seeding to succeed. Its flowers are inconspicuous with greenish to reddish colours.
It flowers from May to July. The stem can grow up to one meter high. The leaves are usually about two to three times longer than they are wide, and they taste sour – like shamrock. The plant grows close to the boundary line, where there is a bit more sustenance to be found than closer to the water’s edge.
Storksbill is very common and widespread throughout Denmark on dry and lean soils. The plant usually grows on sandy arable land, beach ridges, dunes, roadsides, and in gardens and parks.
The storksbill is characterised by its double deeply cut lobed leaves with serrated leaflets and screens with up to 12 rosy flowers together. Each flower has 5 narrow petals. In addition, the stems of the plant are soft-haired and partially lying down, and the flower stems are upright and hairy.
The fruits of the storksbill are long, beak-like schizocarps with 5 seeds. The 5 flaps of the fruit open from below and are divided into five parts with one seed each.
Did you know?
When the mericarps of the storksbill fall off the plant, they can wander away and twist into the ground from where they can germinate and form new plants. This can be done as the mericarp winds up when it is dry, and then unwinds when it is moist. This will “screw” the fruits into the ground.
Yellow bedstraw is very common everywhere in Denmark, where the plant is mainly found on dry, sandy and lean soil. The plant usually grows on road edges and dunes, as well as in fields, slopes, heaths, meadows and beach ridges. The yellow bedstraw’s above ground stems are round and set with 4 rows of hair. The needle-shaped leaves of the plant are dark green with a woolly underside. These are gathered by 8-12 in separate wreaths around the stems. The plant often forms dense bushes. The flowers are small and yellow with four petals. The flowers are gathered in a top and are very fragrant. The plant bears schizocarps, each containing 2 smooth and black mericarps.
Did you know?
Yellow bedstraw is also called “lady’s bedstraw”, as it is told that it was used as a bed straw for the Child Jesus. In the past, yellow bedstraw was dedicated to the Nordic goddess Freja, who is the goddess of love and marriage. Yellow bedstraw was therefore placed in the beds of women in birth.
Also called seaside eryngo.
Perennial salt tolerant plant. Wind dispersion and vegetative propagation from underground parts. It is up to 60 cm high with upright growth. The whole plant is blue grey, rigid, stinging and thistle-like. The leaves are leather-like and palmately with a thorny rim. The flowers are assembled in spherical heads with blue-grey, thorny bracts. The petals are light blue. The flower heads and the stiff/protruding appearance catch the eye.
Salt or sodium chloride is usually poison for plants. Salt simply sucks the water out of the plant. The high salinity of the beach sand means that ordinary plants do not thrive there. Only the so-called salt-tolerant plants can grow on the beach.
A plant can only absorb water when the osmotic pressure in the plant is greater than in the ground water. Then a physiological process causes the water to be “sucked” into the plant. Beach plants have an osmotic pressure of 17-36 atmospheres, which 4 times than in glycophytes, the plants that are not salt-tolerant. The beach plants build up the high osmotic pressure by absorbing salt from the ground water that accumulates in the plants.
Beach mustard can form quite large, contiguous stands on the beach and is common throughout Denmark. The herb usually grows on sandy beach shores where it finds nourishment from washed-up seaweed. The flowers of the herb are violet and fragrant. They have four petals forming a cross and are gathered in small bunches. The fruits are green siliques with two parts, the top falls, while the bottom remains on the plant.
Did you know?
Beach mustard, which grows in North and West Jutland, does not have deeply cut lobed leaves like the plants that are found in the rest of the country have. The leaves of beach mustard from the north-west of Jutland are wider and roughly toothed or lobed.
