Sea kale at Sandhaven

Sea Kale (Crambe Maritima) This striking plant is over 1 metre in diameter.

A solitary monstrous sea kale plant growing in the pebbles on Sandhaven shore. The round seed heads are held above the fleshy leaves, typical of shore plants in being thick, glaucous and bluish-green.  Sea kale, now in decline, is thought to have been the ancestor of cultivated kale and in the 19th century the blanched roots were considered to be a great delicacy. It is said to have been cultivated in Pennan and elsewhere.

The leaves are rapidly being devoured by gorging caterpillars

New Aberdour - evolving flora

New Aberdour Shore has a shingle beach which provides a habitat for the beautiful oyster plant (Mertensia maritima). A small colony shifts about annually at the west end of the beach. The prostrate bluish grey leaves always reappear each year in  a slightly different position at the top of the beach and are followed by exquisite  flowers - pink at first then turning to blue. The lovely Grass of Parnassus grows in damp places at the eastern end of the bay. It was at Aberdour that in 1840 the first example in the Aberdeenshire of the now ubiquitous Pineapple Weed, (Matricaria matricariodes) a native of north east Asia,  was first recorded. It was thought to have arrived in the NE in a consignment of animal feed, by 1890 it was also growing at Pitsligo Castle and in Pitullie and by 1901 was said to be spreading from the seaports in 5 parishes.

There were a few meadow brown butterflies in the  long grass above the beach.

Delicate blue harebells and hawkweed at the dyke side between the mill and the village - flowers which along with the distant ripening barley fields signal the turning of the year.

In the middle of the  junction of the roads to Aberdour beach and  Pennan  a triangle of waste land has been sown with a 'wild' flower mix and provides a rich profusion of colourful flowers. Sadly in the 15 minutes or so that it took to photograph the patch not a single butterfly visited them.

The mix includes such gems as Corncockle -(Agrstemma githago), Maiden Pink ( Dianthus deltoides) on the extreme left of the picture, Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and Flax (Linum usitatissimum) all of which are described by Welch as rare, 'probably introduced'.There are also field poppies and a garden form of Toadflax
It will be interesting to see if these species survive and reoccur in the future.

Corncockle

Flax rarely occurs locally but is a relic of the once important linen trade in the area.