Madeira sea beet
Beta patula
Family · Amaranthaceae · Harmless
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The wild beet that exists only on the islets of Madeira and Porto Santo, one of Europe's most threatened plants and a wild ancestor of the garden beet.
Dunes and sand · Walls and rocks
Also known asMadeiran beet
How to tell it
A fleshy prostrate plant with diamond or triangular leaves, glossy and slightly wavy, often stained red. Long spikes of minute green petalless flowers, grouped in small bunches along the axis. It grows only on islets and sea-beaten coastal rocks. Range: endemic to Madeira.
What it is confused with
Sea beet
Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima
They are nearly identical and sea beet is edible too. The Madeiran one grows only on islets and sea-beaten rocks, and is critically endangered: the difference that matters is not botanical but legal. If you are on a Madeiran islet, nothing is picked.
What it is for
None to encourage, even though it is edible like other wild beets. It is critically endangered and restricted to half a dozen islets, and its real value is genetic: it holds variation that may one day save the cultivated beet from a disease.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
The law says
A priority species of the Habitats Directive and critically endangered. It is not collected under any circumstances.