Shingle Street is an exacting place for its flora, especially plants of the shingle, saltmarsh and ultra-arid concrete. They are all superbly adapted to their hard life, from plants with taproots that probe metres-deep into the shingle in search of water, to species daily submerged by the tides, and tiny, rare clovers flourishing in compacted soil that are grazed by rabbits right down to the ground. They are all specialists in their own way: finding them, photographing and recording them in 2015 helps create an important benchmark.
Laurie and Jonathan Forsyth

Description of principle flora habitats

 
Unstable shingle
Steep, sliding shingle close to the sea, backed by a series of storm-made ridges divided by intervening furrows. The ages of the storm ridges increase progressively with distance from the sea, with each ridge older than its predecessor. The first pioneer plants – usually Orache sp – are found on the youngest ridges. In a stormy winter, this habitat may be entirely washed away, only to re-form again.
 
Vegetated shingle
Loose shingle on a succession of storm ridges with intervening furrows, often with a marked variation in the sizes of stones on top of the ridges, compared with the stones in furrows on either side. Sea kale Crambe maritima is particularly abundant in this habitat, as is sea pea Lathyrus japonicus, which is usually confined to the crests of the storm ridges, with yellow-horned poppy Glaucium flavum and curled dock Rumex crispus. A thin sward of false oatgrass Arrhenatherum elatius covers extensive areas of this habitat.
 
Bare, fixed shingle Shingle at the farthest point from the sea was deposited long ago, and may not have been disturbed for decades. Successive generations of moss and other low plants have become established, only to eventually die and decompose into thin soil that acts as a matrix around the stones, making them progressively more stable and suitable for further colonisation by more plants and moss. Where bare stone remains exposed it is often colonised by a variety of orange or black lichens and Cladonia lichens sp. Sea campion Silene maritima and several stonecrops Sedum sp are also found here.
 
Grassed shingle
On the seaward side of the cottages and more noticeably on the landward side, areas of shingle are immobile and almost invisible in many places, being covered with a dense sward of low flora-rich grasses. In areas where rabbit grazing has created a low sward and patches of disturbance through scuffling and burrowing, several rare or local species grow, including yellow vetch Vicia lutea, and the small clovers T. suffocatum, T.glomeratum and T. striatum. Bur medick Medicago minima is often found with these species. Taller species that flourish in this habitat include viper’s bugloss Echium vulgare, weld Reseda luteola, hoary mullein Verbascum pulverulentum, and valerian Centranthus rubra.
 
Vegetated seawall
Serpentine earth walls twist and turn, following both sides of the old course of the drained Barthorpe’s Creek. They are heavily vegetated by a small number of very dominant species, including false oatgrass, cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata,Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus, hemlock Conium maculatum, stinging nettle Urtica dioica, prickly sowthistle Sonchus asper and creeping thistle Cirsium arvense.
 
Concrete
Although man-made, the arid surfaces of concrete roads are important features for lichens, stonecrops and other small plants. Cracked, broken areas of concrete and masonry are a good habitat for small species such as early forget me not Myosotis ramosissima, sticky mouse ear Cerastium glomerata, procumbent pearlwort Sagina procumbens, common whitlow grass Erophila verna and early hairgrass Aira praecox
 
Saltmarsh
Saltmarsh has formed where the shingle deflects waves or strong currents, allowing silt and mud to accumulate in calm, shallow water, such as either side of Barthorpe’s Creek. Eventually, when the accumulating material is deep enough, and raised high enough to be exposed for long periods between tides, it will be colonised by a succession of plant species. This usually begins with species of glasswort or samphire Salicornia sp. Daily tides submerge some areas of the saltmarsh for longer than others. Because of this and also because some plant species have a greater salt tolerance than others, different zones of salt-tolerant vegetation become established, ranging from glasswort at the lowest point, to sea wormwood Artemisia maritima and shrubby seablite Sueda vera at the highest point, which is often at the foot of the seawall. The bulk of vegetation in the ‘middle marsh’ usually consists of sea purslane, Atriplex portucaloides, sea lavender Limonium vulgare, and saltmarsh grasses.
 
 

Salty wind, sea and stones are what you get at Shingle Street, and lots of wild flowers. They are a hardy bunch of survivors, and superbly at home in the tough environment where land meets sea. Some live in the mud; others in shingle, grassland, on seawalls, in lagoons and some even manage to exist in the cracks in concrete. Summer at Shingle Street produces a palette of colours from seemingly impossible raw materials. Yellow, pink, white, red and deep blue: any gardener would be proud to have flowers as striking if they came from a garden centre, and a glance at the gardens of the cottages proves the point.
 
The plants flourish in their spectacularly hostile home. A beach can be frigidly cold, or baking hot. Tearing winds can desiccate leaves and loosen roots, whilst salt spray is a constant hazard. The plants need fresh water to survive, and rainwater that percolates through the shingle is absorbed at depth by the long taproots possessed by some shingle plants. Those same roots give the plants a solid anchorage in the loose shingle. Having found fresh water, it is vital the plants don’t lose it to the sun and wind through their leaves. Grey-green foliage, a covering of dense hairs or a wax-like surface are all ways in which shingle plants avoid losing moisture. With no shade or wind-breaking hedge or tree, these plants have adapted to their rigorous world as completely as an alpine plant clinging to an ice-sheathed rock ledge on Ben Nevis. Sea beet and sea kale form low hummock shapes that deflect the wind and help reduce water loss. Sea pea’s answer to stem snapping, desiccating gales is to lie prostrate on the shingle. Natural selection has equipped them all with what they need to survive.
 
In contrast to shingle beaches, saltmarshes are formed entirely from mud, covered by a layer of plants, and cut by a pattern of drainage creeks and channels. A healthy saltmarsh is usually covered with sea purslane, sea lavender, sea aster, sea arrowgrass, glasswort and several others. Their numbers can be immense, although the diversity of species is usually low. There are no trees or hedges to provide shade or protection from the wind, and they must survive searing summer sun and winter frosts. Salt is everywhere: it is lethal to most plants, but these plants have a degree of tolerance to it, and some have ways of ridding themselves of it. Sea lavender ‘sweats’ salt from its tissues – you can see salt crystals on the undersides of its leaves. As on the shingle beach, rainfall is the only fresh water available to these saltmarsh plants: the seeds of many of them can germinate only when dowsed with rain in the spring, in a brief springtime window when tides are low for several days.

Laurie Forsyth, Aug 1 2015

by Lydia Vulliamy.    

Shingle Street is a magical place, right by the mouth of the River Ore. Typical shingle flora grow there in profusion. The great mounds of sea kale Crambe maritima predominate. The leaves die back in the winter; in spring the first shoots appear, very dark purple, crinkly and succulent. The plants fully grown are as big as shrubs, and their roots penetrate deep into the shingle.
Continue reading “Shingle Street Flowers” →