A line of large flowering plants along the shingle beach at Dunwich on the Suffolk coast, growing in what seemed to be extremely hostile conditions, turned out to be sea kale (Crambe maritima). A highly specialised and very tough native plant, this member of the brassica family has made a spectacular comeback along our shores.
Sea kale is a classic example of a species that has adapted to thrive in conditions that would kill almost any other plant: deep salty shingle along a stormy shore line. It has tough leathery leaves but was just coming into flower and had a lovely scent.
The key to its success, apart from its resistance to salt, is the deep tap root that allows it to sit on top of a shingle bank but draw water and nutrients from far below. Its seeds are so tough that the plant drops them into the sea and relies on the tide to distribute them to another suitable beach.
Once called scurvy grass because it was pickled and taken to sea as a food to stave off scurvy, it then became a spring green for coastal dwellers and sometimes cattle food, finally becoming depleted. Now it is a protected species and is thriving. Let us hope fashionable chefs do not rediscover it.
