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Essex Specialities. 3: Annual Sea-purslane
Annual Sea-blite Suaeda maritima and Sea Arrow-grass Triglochin maritima. Thus far an
unremarkable patch of Essex salt marsh, the only slightly unusual feature other than Annual Sea-
purslane was the presence of Sea Hard-grass Parapholis strigosa; interestingly, the latter species is
one which helps typify the characteristic vegetation in which Atriplex pedunculata grows on the
Continent (Gehu & Meslin 1969).
Second: to see if with a positive search image for the plant and its habitat, we could find it elsewhere.
Likely-looking sites nearby and elsewhere in Essex were scoured, without success. And likewise on
all its former localities- nothing, and in many cases never likely to be again as a result of habitat loss
and changes. We were, in Essex, responsible for the total national population.
This discovery raised a number of questions. For example, how did it get here? Or was it simply
overlooked? We have a theory about its arrival, based on the fact that Brent Geese have one of their
major UK arrival points at Foulness. They come from Siberia, via north Germany and Denmark
where the plant still survives. And the plant is seeding in early October just as the geese are moving.
Breakfast including Atriplex seeds; head for Essex; four hours later, flying over Foulness when
MoD makes a big bang; scares the sh*t out of the birds (quite literally), and down come the seeds,
pre-packed in fertiliser. Much more mundane is the suggestion that they may have always been here
but overlooked: they are quite insignificant, and flowering after most botanists have gone into
hibernation or mutated into mycologists. But - the site is close to a public footpath, and the species
had never before been recorded from Essex. Either way, it would seem that the population started
from a restricted genetic base as the Essex plants are distinct morphologically, especially in their
very long pedicels which are at or above the upper extreme of lengths given in the books (eg Tutin
1987).
Changing fortunes
And so it was over to us at NCC, to in effect devise and implement a Species Action Plan, before the
concept had even been invented:
♦ seeds were taken to Cambridge Botanic Garden, for autecological research by Chris
Burkinshaw. He found amongst other things that it is not an obligate halophyte, and it is
very amenable to cultivation;
♦ a literature search and contact with Continental colleagues gave us some idea of its habitat
requirements and alerted us to substantial declines and local extinctions throughout NW
Europe;
♦ contact was made with the landowner, who was thrilled, as he is very conservation-aware;
♦ the decision was taken not to release precise details of the location for fear of plant twitchers;
♦ we started to explore the possibility of inclusion on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife & Countryside
Aet 1981 at the next review. It was eventually listed in 1992, and so given special protection
against picking, seed collection without a licence, uprooting and any other intentional
damage; and
♦ plans were made for the NCC local team to carry out annual monitoring.
Annual monitoring has duly taken place. Numbers have fluctuated, as one would expect for an
annual, between a few hundred and few thousand. But no significant spread of the plant has been
observed; the large seeds arc clearly not adapted for dispersal, at least via the potential vectors
operating on this site. Tidal movement is not possible here as the ditch is inside the sea wall. Indeed,
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)