Shore plant ID, please?

[Nagual]

I was out and about yesterday and we spotted lots of a plant that I'm not familiar with. Close inspection showed it to have quite a large bushy rosette of leaves and one main tap root. The root was pale yellow / white inside and the older plants had a dark brown rough skin on the root. It had a pleasant smell, which I thought was a bit like turnip, others disagreed though.. . They were lots n lots n lots growing, although most had lost their leaves. They were found on the shore, below the high tide line on the shore itself, and slightly further up the shore, towards the grass, but none on the grass itself. The size of the root in these pics is about 8 inches long and around 1 inch in diameter. There was one we saw that was around 3 inches in diameter, so think this one is not by far the largest they grow.

It kinda looks like this from above, sorry the cam was a bit wobbly. I had take several in situ, but they are on my phone and right now can't get them offsky.

Any ideas what these are? I'm not familiar with them at all, nor was anyone I was out with.

Cheers.

 

[Melonfish]

when you say shore do you mean by the ocean/sea or by a lake?

 

[Nagual]

when you say shore do you mean by the ocean/sea or by a lake?

Hmm, a 'lake'.. what is one of these I wonder.. hmmm . Sorry, no it wasn't next to a fresh water loch, it was on the shores of Loch Striven, a sea loch. My bad forgot to add that important bit of info.

Cheers

 

[chickenofthewoods]

The leaves and the way they're arranged remind me a bit of Greater Burnet, but they look a little too oval perhaps and I'm uncertain about that for the given location. Will have to hit the books.

 

[Toddy]

Looks like silverweed. It has two kinds of roots, fine curly ones near the surface, commonly found in Summer, but bigger heavy starch rich tap roots in Winter.
Native to our coastlines.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[familne]

Looks a bit big for silverweed plus leaves don't appear serrate enough?

Some sort of umbellifer?

 

[locum76]

I thought umberllifer too, but it doesn't really fit. It doesn't look silvery enough to be silverweed either.

 

[dwardo]

Looks like silverweed. It has two kinds of roots, fine curly ones near the surface, commonly found in Summer, but bigger heavy starch rich tap roots in Winter.
Native to our coastlines.

cheers,
Toddy

Looks like silverweed to me. I usually find it near ponds and lakes.

 

[Toddy]

Two types of silverweed. One is very hairy and so looks silvery, common in grassland, the other less hairy and found along our western seaboard up here.

I could be wrong in my identification based on the photos, but the stuff about silverweed is correct.

cheers,
M

 

[familne]

I'm thinking along the lines of wild parsnip (but not really found in Scotland), or something similar (maybe an escape). Also looks a bit like lesser water-parsnip but that is aquatic and doesn't have such a big tuber. Tricky one! Did it smell of celery?

It's not silverweed, far too big and bushy and wrong leaf shape, and it has stolons not a big root tuber.

 

[Toddy]

Stolons are the long red 'runners', like strawberries have, but silverweed in Winter has a thick tap root underground from the centre of the plant. The roots near the surface are fine curly ones.

It's an old famine food. The starchy roots were boiled and eaten like the cattails.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[familne]

It develops a thicker tap root in winter but not that thick - never 1-3 inches in diameter as described - more like 3-7mm in diameter and the stolons don't disappear!

The leaves are not nearly toothed enough, and the undersides look hairless and shiny in the pics - never like that in silverweed, it is always hairy underneath, often silky - hence the name.

Plus is just too big - unless it was growing close to Hunterston nuclear power plant?

 

[Toddy]

There are two silverweeds. One is hairy, the other is not so.
One prefers drier land, the other is found in damp. One produces small skinny pencil like roots, one has a thicker tap root, almost like a straightish parsnip.

I'm not saying that this plant is this, I wouldn't swear to anything on just the photos, but the silverweed information is sound.
Known in Scots as Murrs, they used to be dug up and eaten like we now do potatoes.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Interesting. I'dve questioned silverweed myself on account of our local esturine version is very downy and very silver but I can see what you're saying Toddy. Still none the wiser though!

 

[Toddy]

I heard that in Yorkshire it was called Morrs, and that name, or it's variants, are also used on the continent.
A quick google only really turned up this link
http://www.hole.gs.rl.no/engl/garden/frame.htm

Both Roger Philips and Jackie Woods claim they can't see how it supposedly supported entire islands of Highlanders during famine. Yet I have it in black and white in several books as a famine food of great abundance and worth. The big tap roots are rich in starch and are quite edible.
I've eaten it as a child, under duress I have to add. I do not like parsnip, it reminded me strongly of parsnip.
I've gotten used to roasted parsnip and as a part of the mixture of vegetable crisps, might see if I can try the Murrs again.

I'm still not claiming that these plants are the silverweed, maybe once Nagual gets a chance to look up some photos and books he might have a clearer idea.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[familne]

There are two silverweeds. One is hairy, the other is not so.
One prefers drier land, the other is found in damp. One produces small skinny pencil like roots, one has a thicker tap root, almost like a straightish parsnip.
Toddy

That's a new one to me, I've never seen two types of silverweed & none of the texts refer to a less hairy variant - got any refs? Not saying you are wrong, I work as a botanist/ecologist so am genuinely interested!

 

[familne]

I've asked around and the general consensus is it's a very large Burnet saxifrage - Pimpinella saxifraga but I'm still not convinced, never seen one that big either!

 

[Toddy]

It does look like the burnet.

The two silverweeds are Argentina answerina and Argentina egedii.
The latter is called the Pacific silverweed but it's all along the northern coastlines of the Americas and Europe.

Went a googling.
http://www.twocrows.co.uk/kaleidescopes/text-pages/silverweed-text.html

I think his tastebuds are a bit off, the stuff I was given tasted like (felt like ?) parsnips.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[familne]

Very interesting, thanks for the link, more of a North American sub-species which is why I've never heard of it before.

 

[combatblade1]

I think it is an Umbelliferae namely Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa).