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Post by Tringa on Oct 16, 2015 12:55:57 GMT
I was at Applecross on the north west coast of Scotland yesterday and found these two while wandering on the shore. They were growing close to each other but a long way down the beach. The tide was out at the time but it was clear that they would be well covered by seawater when the tide came in. The width of the rosette of leaves of the first was about 6 - 7 cm. In the second the distance across the stem, from tip to tip of the leaflets was about 1 cm. There was a lot of both so I'm even more annoyed with myself that I have not been able to find a couple of common plants. Grateful for the IDs. Dave Number 1 Number 2  IMGP7926_edited-1 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr  IMGP7924_edited-1 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr |
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Post by aeshna5 on Oct 16, 2015 18:56:09 GMT
Looks like:
1 Sea Plantain, Plantago maritima
2 Sea Sandwort, Honckenya peploides
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Post by Tringa on Oct 17, 2015 7:10:42 GMT
Thanks for the reply. Sea Plantain looks spot on for the first. The photos I can find of Sea Sandwort show leaves in a rosette around the stem. The plant I saw had leaves either side of the stem, but perhaps the structure changes as the plant dies - quite a lot of it was yellowish.
Dave
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Post by faith on Oct 17, 2015 8:10:58 GMT
I think it is just that your plant is very prostrate on the ground so you are seeing it flattened out. It is not that it has a rosette when it is more upright (which is the way is more usually seen), but that you are likely to be looking at it from above, so you see a foreshortened view which looks more like a rosette. Does that make sense?
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Post by Tringa on Oct 17, 2015 9:15:46 GMT
Thanks, yes I understand what you mean.
Dave
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Post by John Pappus on Oct 17, 2015 11:53:16 GMT
Mmm, I see what you mean re the leaf arrangement and indeed overall look of the shoots when compared to what I can find on Honckenya peploides, do you have any more information Dave?
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Post by Tringa on Oct 18, 2015 7:03:49 GMT
Sorry John. I took only one photo of it. As I mentioned above there was a lot of this plant most of which looked as if it was dying.
There is a suggestion of yellowing in the photo but there were large areas of it where it was all yellow or brown. All the plants, even those that looked healthy, were prostrate and looked as if the stems would not be strong enough to hold them upright.
Dave
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Post by faith on Oct 18, 2015 9:12:03 GMT
I wondered if there might be a plant we had overlooked, but running it through Poland, I still got the same answer. One clue is that if you look closely, you will see that it is not just pairs of opposite leaves, but in between each pair there is another pair running at right angles to the first. (Not easy to see, because of it being flat on the ground.) The technical term for this is 'decussate' and Honckenya is strongly decussate. Also if you google the images (though of course, the further down the page you go, the more you encounter things that are not Honckenya at all except in the photographer's imagination!), you will find that there are upright plants that look as though they have rosettes, and prostrate ones which look very like the one in your picture.
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Post by John Pappus on Oct 18, 2015 13:18:29 GMT
Yes, I see what you mean Faith, they do look decussate and Honckenya does seem to be almost certainly the one, as you say there aren't really any serious competitors for the ID. I for one think you're right with Honckenya. Two great images to play-around with, great fun to do. Now you've made me want to have a look in Poland! Great original post and a good ID process!
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