This plant was growing on the area of tussock and bog just behind the beach at Mingary - the sort of area a high tide with a gale behind it might just reach. We haven't noticed it elsewhere. Has anyone any idea what it is?
Further along this blackthorn had been moulded against an old stone wall by the southwesterly gales.
We identified it as a blackthorn as opposed to may on the basis that it's too early for may to be out, and because the flowers preceded the leaves.
Is it a Cowberry? One of our books says "Common in the Scottish Highlands and rare elsewhere" but a quick dabble in the web comes up with the Yorkshire Dales. This might be complicated.
ReplyDeleteThe leaves look right but all the pics of the flowers look a bit more bell shaped.
It is in Brassicaceae.I believe it is Cochlearia officinalis.
ReplyDeleteCommon name Common scurvy grass.
http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/cruciferae/cochlearia-officinalis.htm
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Cochlearia+officinalis&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=ImmAT6__F8Go0AXv3tjsBg&biw=1280&bih=647&sei=JWmAT9fnG-O-0QXrna3nBg
Hope this helps.
Sheila.
Good close ups here...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.php?taxon=cochlearia_officinalis,1&ad=2
Quote...from
ReplyDeletehttp://www.first-nature.com/flowers/cochlearia_officinalis.php
"Sailors ate scurvy-grass when at sea to ward off the debilitating disease of scurvy, which is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. The symptoms of scurvy are spongy and bleeding gums, bleeding beneath the skin, and extreme weakness. The sharp-tasting leaves of this plant are very high in vitamin C, and at one time scurvy-grass ale was a popular tonic drink."
Sheila
Yes, we agree with Sheila here, it is Cochlearia - Common scurvey grass
ReplyDeleteJane & Dave Brown
Certainly a scurvy grass, but I think it might be Danish Scurvy Grass - Cochlearia danica.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks indeed for all the suggestions. It certainly looks like scurvy grass, with officinalis described as common on the west coast, but this is the first time I've noticed it.
ReplyDeleteJon, I do hope you will return to do a taste test and report back to us all!!!!
ReplyDeleteHmm! Hilary, I concidered Cochlearia danica as well.
But the buds show more pink and the flowers a sort of mauve.
http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/cruciferae/cochlearia-danica.htm
Sheila.
Sheila - Am perfectly willing to be a guinea-pig on condition my wife to brews me some scurvy grass ale. Jon
ReplyDeleteCould this be the rarer, Finnish Scurvy Coriander? To be sure, a derivitive (?) of the vitamin C rich Nelsonic aka Cookian scurvy beet that ensured not all would die at sea as we both understood and conquered terra nova? Indeed, without it we may have never discovered Oceania, Maori or the Polynesian/Taiwanese roots of Pacifica? We must of course, not, discount the Vitamin C rich tubers that we all know Capt. Cook both took with him and had access to once in southern climes.
ReplyDeleteDr. John Talbot M.Ed
Intersting.
ReplyDeleteDr Talbot can you provide the botanical latin name for Finnish Scurvy Coriander?
I am struggling to find it on www.
Sheila.
The Brassicaceae is:
ReplyDeleteCochlearia officinalis ssp. scotica (or Cochlearia scotica).
Cochlearia danica is an annual species. However, the taxonomic status of Cochlearia ooficinalis species group is still under study. A similar "morphotype" of C. scotica occur also at the scandinavian coast and has been named C. officinalis ssp. anglica ...
Hope this helps,
MAK
Many thanks MAK for such a definitive answer. Is this something unusual, then? Jon
ReplyDelete