Sea Lavender

Pete and I had a short visit to Kirton Marsh before heading north to Boston to pick Alex up from a friend's house.When I made the arrangements the weather forecast had been for warm sunshine, but instead we had a wall of grey cloud and a peculiarly muggy feel. I'd been hankering after a visit to the coast and it certainly made a change from our local woods and meadows, even though we didn't get a single glimpse of the sea!

The saltmarsh flowers are usually at their best in August, but I managed to find a couple of flowering plants of Sea Lavender. I had a botanical motive for choosing this particular location - to re-find a population of Sea Barley (see extra) last recorded in 1991. I was delighted to find a good number of plants at the top of the saltmarsh - this species has declined in many areas and is now considered to be Vulnerable in the UK. However, like several other saltmarsh plants, it is beginning to take advantage of salted roadsides and there are now a number of inland populations.