Sea Aster

Sea aster Aster tripolium comes into flower just as most other saltmarsh plants, like sea lavender and sea pink, are past their best, and it continues to flower well into early autumn. This fine specimen was one of many flowering on the saltmarsh at Warkworth recently. It's a very variable plant, tolerant of a wide range of conditions. On the saltmarsh it's periodically inundated with sea water during spring tides and it grows in extremely saline mud. Salt-tolerant plants like this are classified as halophytes.

In other places it tolerates brackish conditions. I photographed this population of the plant on the banks of the Tyne last week, seventeen miles inland from the coast, near Newburn near Ryton Willows Local Nature Reserve. The river is still tidal at this point and here the water must still be only slightly salty, compared with the coastal conditions. The plants here are much taller, more on the scale of garden Michaelmas daisies, which may be because the plants are inundated twice a day and grow on sloping river banks, so it's more of a struggle to keep their heads above water, unlike the saltmarsh plants that grow on an almost flat surface and are only infrequently flooded during very high tides.

There has been a significant amount of research interest around the world on this species in recent years, because of its potential as an animal fodder crop that will grow on very saline soils, with the potential to return land to productivity after it has suffered salinisation through excess irrigation .

Rockcliffe

On our way back to Durham from Galloway we detoured down to Rockcliffe, near Dalbeattie, to follow the Rockcliffe to Sandyhills Coastal Path, which is strewn with wild flowers along its whole length. This is tufted vetch, with Rockcliffe in the distance.

The beginning of the path borders on a shingly area of shore, where we passed a fine specimen of sea kale...

... in full flower (although for more impressive pictures of this plant, take a look at Wight Rambles blog). Even when it's not in flower, the thick, glaucous leaves of this plant are attractive.

A little further on the path borders salt-marsh, with sea lavender in bloom.

Higher up on the rocky part of the shore we passed some fine displays of dyer's greenweed ....

... that formed part of a natural rock garden display.

At Castle Point there are impressive cliffs and a sandy bay. From the cliff top here you can see the Isle of Man and the peaks of the Lake District.

On the path down the cliffs we passed this beautifully camouflaged grayling butterfly, that steadfastly refused to open its wings ..

... while burnet saxifrage Pimpinella saxifraga grew in the crevices near the base of the cliffs.

 

Castle Point is at the end of the beach .

 

Some of the rocks protruding from the sand were encrusted with reefs of honeycomb worms Sabellaria alveolata.

 

Each of these tubes, contains a worm that protects itself with a casing made from sand grains that are glued together. When they're covered by the tide the waving tentacles of the worms catch minute food particles or capture sand grains to repair the tubes.

 

On the horizon, across the Solway, an impressive wind farm, with row-upon-row of turbines, is visible from the cliff top at Castle Point.

Portpatrick and the Southern Uplands Way

The little harbour of Portpatrick on the Galloway coast is the starting point for the Southern Upland Way, but before climbing the steps to the cliff top at start of the route it's worth taking a look around the harbour because....

.... there are usually black guillemots fishing there, and if you're lucky .....

.... they'll be posing for a photograph on the harbour wall.

...... where there is often a vigorous exchange with others ...

..... that nest in cavities between the building blocks of the harbour wall. These are birds with a startlingly simple colour scheme - sooty black and pure white plumage and wonderful crimson feet with matching interior colour scheme in their bills.

Very approachable birds - although there didn't seem to be as many as when we first visited, in 2006.

There's also a well established herring gull breeding colony on the cliffs as you leave the town, with some vulnerable chicks on narrow ledges ........

.........protected by fierce-looking adults

The first mile or so further on the path skirts a series of sandy bays and in one - Lairds bay , marked as Port Mora/Port Kale on the Ordnance Survey map - lies this fascinating telegraph station, built at the landfall of the first submerged telegraph cable to Donaghadee in Northern Ireland, across what is now known as the North Channel but was then the Irish Channel, in 1853. More recently the building has been a visitor centre but now seems disused. You can still see the frayed cable partially buried in the shingle on the beach: an interesting fragment of telecommunications archaeology.

There's a fine cliff-top flora along this stretch of coast that includes the almost hemispherical umbels of wild carrot. Once these begin to set seed the stalks of the outer clusters of florets elongate and curl inwards, so the ripe seed head resembles a clenched fist.

The cliffs here are festooned with honeysuckle and as you climb the path up from the beach the scent is glorious on a fine summer evening.

Slender St. John's wort, with red undersides to its petals, is also a feature of the cliffs here, as is ...

... the sea spleenwort fern with its leathery fronds, that grows in rock crevices close to the beach, well within reach of salt spray. Fresh water trickling down the cliffs is probably the antidote to this saline assault.

Pink Pyramids

Port Logan, on the Rhins of Galloway peninsula, is sandy bay backed by a stony beach and sand dunes, that takes the full force of the wind and weather sweeping in from the North Channel and Atlantic beyond.

Not, maybe, the kind of place you'd choose to stop on a wet and windy day, but we noticed some interesting-looking flowers in the dunes as we drove by, so stopped to investigate - and we were glad that we did.

When we reached the beach this ringed plover flew off and settled a few yards away, obviously trying to distract our attention....

... and we soon discovered why ..... this wonderfully camouflaged clutch of eggs, laid in a depression in the sand.

But it was the pyramidal orchids - dozens of them - that had first attracted our attention....

Most were the typical deep pink-flowered form but ....

... this one stood out - a much paler pink-flowered plant.

On this coast the weather changes rapidly and within a few minutes the sun broke through, coaxing out the bumblebees to feed on the sea bindweed blooms.

Unlike the climbing bindweed species that plague gardens, this species stays close to the ground, sheltered from the drying wind and conserving water in its succulent, heart-shaped  leaves.

A Flower for our Financial Times?

These delightful sea pinks Armeria maritima were beginning to come into full bloom along the Durham coast at Hawthorn Hive at the weekend.

The alternative common name of sea pink is thrift, although no one seems quite sure why this came about. Richard Mabey, in his Flora Britannica, suggests that it may have been because its tufted leaves were economical with water in the windy locations where it's commonly found.

Those, like me, who are old enough to remember pre-decimalisation currency will recall that some of the old 12-sided brass threepenny pieces carried the botanical embled of a thrift plant on the back, as a reminder of the importance of being prudent with money. Bearing in mind the current economic predicament of the country, maybe it's time to use the same emblem on today's currency?