Rock samphire
Crithmum maritimum
Family · Apiaceae · Harmless
The fleshy umbellifer clinging to cliffs and wave-splashed rocks, and the only one of the family gathered without hesitation, because nothing dangerous lives in that place. Pickled, it is a coastal delicacy across the Peninsula.
Dunes and sand · Walls and rocks
Also known assea fennel, samphire
How to tell it
Leaves divided into fat, cylindrical, succulent, blue-green segments, quite unlike the fine leaves of other umbellifers. Yellow-green umbels in late summer. It grows only within reach of sea spray, and that is the best sign of all.
What it is confused with
Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare
Place and leaf. Rock samphire grows only on seaside rock and has fat succulent leaves; fennel grows inland with thread-fine leaves. Both edible.
Open sheet →What it is for
Gathered tender and pickled in vinegar, an old tradition in Portugal, Galicia and along the whole Mediterranean coast. It tastes of sea and carrot at once. Gathering on a cliff is the dangerous part, not the plant.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.