Nice meal but what's this plant?

[littlebiglane]

After catching some nice Plaice and gathering together some Sea Lettuce (sliced and fried in sesame oil and served with light soy), some Sea Purslane (lightly boiled and dressed in rice-wine vinegar), some Sea Beet/Spinach (steamed and buttered) and some Samphire (steamed and buttered). On the way home I picked some bilberries to make a billberry and honey milkshake so I could wash down my free meal.

Growing next to the Samphire (low-margin saltmarsh) was this?Can anyone ID for me? Its not Samphire...but my ID books don't have it (or I am rubbish and cannot ID which is more likely to be the case!

???

A close-up

The Samphire

The Sea Lettuce

The Sea Beet

The Sea Purslane

The Bilberries

The pyschodelic shake!

 

[mace242]

Isn't that rock samphire?

 

[AJB]

Wow - what was the shake like?

 

[Prophecy]

Is it a succulent of a sort?

Maybe a variety of Crassula?

Surely not grown wild over here though...?

 

[chickenofthewoods]

I'd suggest Annual Seablite (Suaeda maritima).

Pfaf has a listing for it and other types of seablite as being edible & describe it as pleasantly salty - I haven't tried it myself yet though.

How did you get on with the Sea Lettuce? I always find it not unlike chewing on a plastic carrier bag and about as flavoursome.

 

[littlebiglane]

Isn't that rock samphire?

Nope. Grew in mud next to the Glasswort. Might go with the Seablite suggestion.

Is Annual Seablite edible?

 

[littlebiglane]

I'd suggest Annual Seablite (Suaeda maritima).

Pfaf has a listing for it and other types of seablite as being edible & describe it as pleasantly salty - I haven't tried it myself yet though.

How did you get on with the Sea Lettuce? I always find it not unlike chewing on a plastic carrier bag and about as flavoursome.

Thanks - might be that. Is it edible?

As for the Sea Lettuce. I kind of agree. Yet making it crispy by shallow frying it in a nutty oil and then adding a flavour to it like soy sauce made up for its lack of taste. Frying gets it away from the plackie-bag feel to it.

 

[littlebiglane]

Wow - what was the shake like?

Surprisingly very nice. Did not separate like blueberries do when mixed with dairy.

My wife peeled me off the ceiling later though

 

[AJB]

Surprisingly very nice. Did not separate like blueberries do when mixed with dairy.

My wife peeled me off the ceiling later though

Put a candle under it and turn it into a Lava lamp!

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Not many references I can find but where I have fround them, it is described as edible.

I think it's likely to be one of those plants you can eat, but isn't madly inspiring so use it as an ingredient in a mixed salad perhaps. I suspect that it would pickle pretty well, being succluent and similar to samphire.

 

[Tadpole]

After catching some nice Plaice and gathering together some Sea Lettuce (sliced and fried in sesame oil and served with light soy), some Sea Purslane (lightly boiled and dressed in rice-wine vinegar), some Sea Beet/Spinach (steamed and buttered) and some Samphire (steamed and buttered). On the way home I picked some bilberries to make a billberry and honey milkshake so I could wash down my free meal.

Growing next to the Samphire (low-margin saltmarsh) was this?Can anyone ID for me? Its not Samphire...but my ID books don't have it (or I am rubbish and cannot ID which is more likely to be the case!

???

A close-up

What does it smell like, I've picked rock samphire as little as half a metre from the tide line,

 

[littlebiglane]

What does it smell like, I've picked rock samphire as little as half a metre from the tide line,

No lemony smell like Rock Samphire I am afraid. This was growing in single stems out of the mud on a Saltmarsh. Has no notable (except vegetal) smell.

 

[Tadpole]

No lemony smell like Rock Samphire I am afraid. This was growing in single stems out of the mud on a Saltmarsh. Has no notable (except vegetal) smell.

Samphire-Leaved Fleabane or
Golden Samphire Inula crithmoides
or saltwort
me I'm clueless

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Inula crithmoides has large-ish yellow daisy like flowers so if it's that you should definitely spot them by now.

Batis maritima (saltwort) has quite club-like leaves and weird little cone like flowers at the junction between stem and leaf joint. Both are pretty distinctive & should help you with your id.