ISLE OF MAN CABBAGE

Coincya monensis

Cabbage Family [Brassicaceae]

month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug

status
statusZnative
 
flower
flower8yellow
 
morph
morph8actino
 
petals
petalsZ4
 
stem
stem8round
 
rarity
rarityZscarce
(ssp. monensis)

9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
A short to medium (to 60cm) maritime biennial.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Grows in sandy places by the sea, where it can get buried by wind-blown or spring-tide borne sand. This one on a sandy beach, equally happy amidst sand dunes.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Stem leaves few. Basal rosette always present. Leaves dark-green, semi-shiny and pinnate.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Flowers yellow, fairly large at 20-25mm across, with 4 petals.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Petals about as wide as long, like those of Annual Wall-Rocket (only larger) or of Perennial Wall-Rocket (only slightly smaller).


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
New flower buds hairy at top, losing some of the hairs as they grow and elongate.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The four sepals in a tubular sheath around the lower part of the flower. Sepals always as long or longer than their stalks.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Flower stalks always shorter than the sepals.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Four stamens protrude with yellow-pollened anthers.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Leaves dark-green and pinnate with thinnish leaflets. Here there are a set of leaves emerging from the stalk, and the basal rosette below. The stem leaves here are incurled and look much thinner than the basal leaves which are slightly bluntly toothed/lobed.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Basal leaves, stalks long and straightish.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Lower leaves apt to get buried by wind-blown dry sand on hot days. Leaves have a textured surface looking like they have been sand-blasted.


9th Aug 2014, the beach, Hightown, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Stems hairless glaucous-green but darkening and reddening. Young seed pods not yet fully developed. When developed they will be longer, thicker and have a waist just at the junction of the tapered beak. Ripe seed-pods similar to those of the very rare Lundy Cabbage which is found only on Lundy Isle. Both beak and pod contain just a single row of seeds (un-like the Wall-rockets which contain 2-rows).


There are two sub-species of Coincya monensis:

  • Isle of Man Cabbage (Coincya monensis ssp. monensis) found not only in the IoM (seemingly much less so now) but also in selected areas on the Sefton and Fylde Coasts opposite. Fairly rare and decreasing.
  • Wallflower Cabbage (Coincya monensis ssp. cheiranthos) At up to 1m tall is taller, hairier and often more branched and with more leaves on the stem. It is naturalised in Monmouthshire but also found scattered elsewhere, not only on the coast but also considerably inland. [This should not be confused with Wall-Flower (Erisimum cheiri) which is in a different genus, albeit still a part of the Brassicaceae family].
The above photos are all of IoM Cabbage(?)

There is another species of Coincya listed in some books ('Wild Flowers of B&I' - Fitton, Fitton & Blamey) treated as a sub-species of Coincya monensis (but not by Prof. Clive Stace) where it is a separate species in it's own right, as shown by the specific epithet wrightii :

  • Lundy Cabbage (Coincya wrightii) which is the rarer of the three, occurring only on Lundy Isle. At up to 1m it is also taller as well as bushier and downier with deeper yellow flowers and with flower stalks usually longer than the sepals and the stem is woody at the base. The terminal lobe of the pinnate leaves is much larger than the lateral lobes.

Some similarities to : Annual Wall-Rocket (Diplotaxis muralis) (but that has smaller flowers) and to Perennial Wall-Rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) (but that has larger flowers) - amongst many other detailed differences.


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  Coincya monensis  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Brassicaceae  

Distribution
 family8Cabbage family8Brassicaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Coincya
Coincya
(Cabbages)

ISLE OF MAN CABBAGE

Coincya monensis

Cabbage Family [Brassicaceae]