When you think of the seaside, you might think of warm sand, vast open skies, grassy dunes, and waves breaking on the shore. You might not think of plant life. Yet coastal areas often host a plethora of seaside plants.
Make no mistake, these are tough plants. They need to be, to endure salty, sandy, or windy conditions. They’re not given as much attention as their showier garden cousins, but they’re still fascinating plants.
Some of them, like sea aster, offer much-needed nectar to late-season insects. Many of them appear in folklore to offer protection against witches, evil spirits, or fairies.
So let’s delve into the folklore of seaside plants! Hit play to hear the podcast episode of this post, or keep reading!
Sea campion
Sea campion, or Silene uniflora, often grows on cliffs and among the shingle.
These locations might explain one of its names, deadmen’s bells. At one stage, it was never picked or brought into the house, or it would bring death. This belief might have arisen because the steep cliffs where it grew posed great danger for children (Plant Lore, 2011). Sea campion was also called ‘witches’ thimbles’ and ‘Devil’s hatties’.
Children were fond of the plant because they could turn the flowers inside out to make a ballet dancer. Others turned the flowers inside out and removed some petals and stamens to turn the flower into a washerwoman (Plant Lore, 2011).
Gorse
Gorse, or Ulex europaeus, is a common sight in coastal areas. It’s also a useful plant from a magical protection perspective. In the 19th century, people kept gorse around their beds to ward off fairies. Others might stuff gorse up the chimney in the summer to stop magical powers from entering the home.
According to S Theresa Dietz, people in Wales planted gorse hedges to ward off fairies. They couldn’t get between the branches. This makes gorse a wonderful plant for protection (Dietz 2020: 223).
Despite this protective aspect, others believed that both witches and fairies hid under gorse on May Eve (or April 30) (Baker 2011 [1969]: 63). This could be because April 30 has strong associations with witchcraft and evil being abroad thanks to celebrations like Walpurgisnacht.
In Somerset and Dorset, carrying gorse into the house was a bad omen and meant that people would soon carry out a coffin (Baker 2011 [1969]: 64).
In late nineteenth-century Cornwall, people hung gorse over the door on May Day morning. Someone in the household would try to hang a wreath of gorse before the farmer got out of bed. If they did this, they earned bread and cream for breakfast (Baker 2011 [1969]: 64). Its yellow blossoms also make it useful in money magic.
Gorse is an unusual plant since it blossoms throughout the year, which led to an old saying,
When kissing’s out of fashion
(Baker 2011 [1969]: 64)
Gorse is out of bloom.
Common Mallow
Common Mallow, or Malva sylvestris, grows in a range of conditions, including the seaside. Common mallow is also known as cheese-cake, cheeses, and blue mallow (Dietz 2020: 138).
Its strange names come from the fact the fruit is shaped like cheese wheels. You can eat many species of Malva, although check which species you have before you eat anything. Linda Ly notes that the leaves have more vitamin A than most vegetables. In fact, we should consider it a vegetable more than a weed (2015).
Yet it also had magical uses. According to our old friend Pliny the Elder, mallow was an aphrodisiac. It particularly stimulated women (Ly 2015). People wove mallow into flower garlands or wreaths to celebrate May Day (Dietz 2020: 139).
In the past, people used the flowers to calm eye problems, while the leaves apparently worked as a poultice to cure a sprain (Plant Lore 2021). Some think the Romans cultivated mallow to use it in medicine.
In the Victorian language of flowers, mallow meant ‘mildness’ (Burke 1867: 38).
Red Valerian
Red valerian (Centranthus ruber) is another plant that will grow in seaside areas. It’s sometimes confused with valerian, or Valeriana officinalis. The plant isn’t native to the UK, instead being introduced before the 1600s from the Mediterranean. Red valerian is a wonderful plant that provides nectar for insects until October.
In Dorset, people called the plant kiss-me-quick. In Cornwall, its name was Padstow pride. While in north Wales, it went by the name ‘cherry noses’ (Plant Lore, 2010). It was also called Devil’s Beard, Jupiter’s Beard, and Fox’s Brush (Dietz 2020: 55).
According to Margaret Baker, it worked to deter witches, attract love, and act as an aphrodisiac (2011 [1969]: 152).
Sea aster
The sea aster, or Aster tripolium, flowers from July until October, so they’re sometimes known as Michaelmas daisies. They’re useful for butterflies like the Red Admiral that appear later in the summer. In Dorset and Somerset, the sea aster is known as ‘Summer’s Farewell’ (Plantlife 2022).
While many varieties of aster come from America, the sea aster is native to British coasts. They favour salt marshes, cliffs, and estuaries.
According to S Theresa Dietz, you could carry aster to bring love into your life. Growing it in your garden invited love into your life. At the same time, it could also ward off evil spirits! (2020: 33)
Some of the plant’s symbolic meanings included daintiness, elegance, ‘I partake your sentiments’, love, and wisdom (Dietz 2020: 32).
Sea holly
The sea holly, or Eryngium maritimum, is fond of sandy shores and dunes.
According to folklore, this plant has a strange power over goats. Any goat that eats sea holly will suddenly come to a halt. It will also bring its herd to a stop (Baker 2011 [1969]: 141).
In Elizabethan England, people used the flowers as an aphrodisiac. Even Shakespeare noted this use in The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Wildlife Trusts 2022). This perhaps explains the belief you can also stop a lover from straying with sea holly (Baker 2011 [1969]: 141). People also pulped the roots and coated them with sugar to sell them as sweets (The Wildlife Trusts 2022).
Sea holly acted as a good luck charm if you carried it while travelling. It would also keep you safe. You could also use it to bring peace during an argument by scattering it between the angry people (Dietz 2020: 85).
Sea buckthorn
This plant is otherwise known as seaberry, sallow thorn, and sandthorn. It grows in a range of locations, but in western Europe, it usually grows on sea coasts. Salt spray kills off larger plants so sea buckthorn has less competition.
Its botanical name, Hippophae rhamnoides, comes from ‘Hippo’ meaning horse and ‘phaos’ or ‘to shine’. People noticed that horses that ate sea buckthorn leaves gained a shiny coat. This perhaps explains the belief that sea buckthorn was Pegasus’ favourite food.
It was believed to treat exhaustion. This is hardly surprising since the berries contain 10x more vitamin C than lemons. People also believed it could speed wound healing when applied to the skin (Binney 2018: 118).
There is not yet any clinical evidence that it’s effective, but people report anecdotally that it works.
Seaweed
Seaweed is technically not a plant, but rather a form of algae. Yet it’s so synonymous with the seaside that I felt I had to include it. Seaweed is also incredibly nutritious, with laver (Porphyra dioica) a popular food source in Wales since the 1600s. That said, many chose not to gather seaweed on Sundays or holy days (Inkwright 2020: 140).
People in Cornish and Devon fishing villages kept dried seaweed on the mantelpiece as a fire charm, where they called it ‘ladies’ trees’ (Baker 2011 [1969]: 141). In Wales, people hung seaweed in the kitchen to ward off evil spirits (Inkwright 2020: 140).
People would hang up seaweed to predict the weather depending on how dry or damp it was. In a similar vein, in Wales, people hung up a piece of seaweed and a row of pine cones. If the seaweed popped, it meant excellent weather was coming. If the fir cones opened, warm weather was on the way, but it meant rain if they closed (Plant-Lore, 2021).
This works because it stays dry on a good day but becomes wet due to atmospheric humidity so you know a storm is coming. Toothed wrack (Fucus serratus) and bladder wreck (Fucus vesiculosis) are two of the best varieties for this (Inkwright 2020: 140).
Others thought that keeping seaweed in the house meant you would never lack friends (Baker 2011 [1969]: 141).
What do we make of these seaside plants?
These seaside plants don’t have the same amount of folklore as other plants I’ve featured. Herbs like parsley and rosemary could sustain their own post. Perhaps the location of these plants in coastal areas makes them less accessible than others.
Or perhaps the people who collected plant folklore focused on those plants they might find in gardens or floral bouquets. In doing so, they’ve overlooked some incredibly versatile and pretty plants.
So next time you take a walk near the coast, keep your eye out for the plants you might see. They could be lurking along the edges of paths, in clumps near the dunes, or even poking through the gravel in a car park!
Which seaside plants grow near you? Let me know in the comments!
References
Baker, Margaret (2011 [1969]), Discovering the Folklore of Plants, 3rd edition, Oxford: Shire Classics.
Binney, Ruth (2018), Plant Lore and Legend, Hassocks: Rydon.
Burke, L (1867), The illustrated language of flowers, London: G. Routledge & Sons.
Dietz, S. Theresa (2020), The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History, New York: Wellfleet Press.
Harrington, Christina Oakley (2020), The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, London: Treadwells Books.
Inkwright, Fez (2020), Folk Magic and Healing: An Unusual History of Everyday Plants, London: Liminal 11 Press.
Ly, Linda (2015), ‘Mallow Weed: The Wild Edible That’s Also a Love Potion’, Garden Betty, https://www.gardenbetty.com/mallow-the-everywhere-edible-weed/.
Plantlife (2022), ‘Sea aster’, Plantlife, https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/sea-aster.
Plant Lore (2010), ‘Red Valerian’, Plant-Lore.com, http://www.plant-lore.com/red-valerian/.
Plant Lore (2010), ‘Common Mallow’, Plant-Lore.com, http://www.plant-lore.com/common-mallow/.
Plant Lore (2011), ‘Sea campion’, Plant-Lore.com, http://www.plant-lore.com/sea-campion-2/.
Plant Lore (2021), ‘Seaweed’, Plant-Lore.com, http://www.plant-lore.com/seaweed-2/.
The Wildlife Trusts (2022), ‘Sea holly’, The Wildlife Trusts, https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/sea-holly.
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