Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae] |
status
flower
petals
stem
smell
aromatictoxicity
rarity
sex
outer flrssex
inner flrs
18th June, 2019, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
It is slowly spreading. |
18th June, 2019, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
It has been in this location since 2004, so appeared relatively recently. |
18th June, 2019, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
At this time of year the flowers have yet to appear. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Lower down the stem the succulent leaves become branched and longer, but still are very narrow. The stem is red lower down. |
18th June, 2019, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves have a few appressed hairs atop. They are linear, rounded on the upper surface, with mostly appressed hairs and are branched. |
18th June, 2019, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The stems here are pale-green with red stripes and angular. |
19th Aug, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Two months later in the year the plant is flowering. Dune Wormwood is a fairly short wormwood, about 50cm high, but at this location in Merseyside it is somewhat slanting (with the prevailing wind). Here it is in flower. First discovered here by Dr. Phil Smith & Mike Wilcox around 2007. It is expected it may show up on other coasts too. It has been in Glamorgan since 1956. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
A lose but long spike of flowers occupying perhaps the top half of the (un-branched?) stem. The flower are not yet open in August, opening in September. |
19th Aug, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowering part of the stem is branched with a few flowers per branch, and short but fat and narrow succulent leaves. The yellow flowers trying to break through at the top. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Three weeks later the flowers are a little more open, but they never fully open; this is about as good as it gets. |
19th Aug, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers are surrounded by stubby and thick dark-green sepals/bracts. All green parts are covered in tiny white pores. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The bulging bracts are succulent, as is the rather rigid stem. Three open flowers showing both a few disc florets (in the centre) and a few longer and forked cream-coloured stigmas which sprawl outwards. Each flower is only about 2 or 3mm across, making the disc-florets maybe 0.5mm across? |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Five or six disc-florets are visible in this photo, with possibly others hidden by the green bracts or the longer forked stigmas. It is possible that there are 5 stubby green sepals in a pentagonal arrangement around the flower, with additional similar-looking bracts lower down. See the side elevation below. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Side elevation. The much shorter and narrower 'needles' protruding are possibly the filaments, but, if so, where are their anthers(?). |
19th Aug, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Parts of the flowers trying to emerge at the top. The sepals/bracts are covered in tiny white pores, as are all green parts. |
2nd Sept, 2017, old sand dunes, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The white pores sit one each in the tiny white elongated pimples. The plant is adapted to saline conditions found on old sand dunes near the sea by the numerous pores through which it can expel un-wanted unwanted salt dissolved in water. The leaves are also fat and succulent to hold enough water to dilute the toxic salt which it would rather not contain. |
Not to be semantically confused with :
Uniquely identifiable characteristics; Because it is a succulent it looks totally different to any other Wormwood or Mugwort, such as Distinguishing Feature : It has been declared that Dune Wormwood is native to the UK, despite its recently re-found status after an apparent absence.
It is said to be a sub-species of |
Artemisia | campestris ssp. maritima | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Asteraceae |
Artemisia (Mugworts) |
Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae] |