''Armeria maritima'', the thrift, sea thrift or sea pink, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Plumbaginaceae Plumbaginaceae is a family of flowering plants, with a cosmopolitan distribution. The family is sometimes referred to as the leadwort family or the plumbago family. Most species in this family are perennial herbaceous plants, but a few grow ...

. It is a compact

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

which grows in low clumps and sends up long stems that support globes of bright pink flowers. In some cases purple, white or red flowers also occur. It is a popular garden flower and has been distributed worldwide as a garden and cut flower. It does well in gardens designed as xeriscapes or rock gardens. The Latin specific epithet ''maritima'' means pertaining to the sea or coastal.

Subspecies

* ''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''azorica'', Franco * ''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''californica'', synonym: ''California Seapink'' *''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''elongata'', synonym: ''Tall Thrift,''

Gaston Bonnier Gaston Eugène Marie Bonnier (9 April 1853 in Paris – 2 January 1922) was a French botanist and plant ecologist. Biography Bonnier first studied at École Normale Supérieure in Paris from 1873 to 1876. Together with Charles Flahault, he st ...

. *''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''maritima'' *''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''purpurea,'' synonym: ''Armeria purpurea'' W.D.J.Koch, (

W.D.J.Koch Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch (5 March 1771 – 14 November 1849) was a German physician and botanist from Kusel, a town in the Rhineland-Palatinate. Koch studied medicine at the Universities of Jena and Marburg, and afterwards was a '' Stadtphysicu ...

) Á.Löve and D.Löve *''Armeria maritima'' subsp. ''sibirica'', synonym: ''Siberian Sea Thrift'', Turczaninow ex Boissier

Distribution and habitat

''Armeria maritima''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

has a circumpolar distribution can be found in the wild in coastal areas across the Northern Hemisphere. It can grow in dry, sandy, saline conditions such as coastal cliffs, grassland and

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

es, salted roadsides and inland on mountain rocks. It is a common sight in

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

salt marshes, where it flowers April to October. ''Armeria maritima'' has a great

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

-tolerance, and is able to grow in

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

s with copper concentrations of up to 6400 mg/kg. One mechanism proposed is that not much copper is transported up the shoot of the plant, and is excreted from decaying leaves. Some of the physiology and metabolism of this species has been described, of particular note is how the metabolism of this species is altered with elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Ecology

Pollination is by various insects including

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

and

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

. It is a known host species to the pathogenic fungus ''

Phoma herbarum ''Phoma herbarum'' is a fungal plant pathogen infecting various plant species, including ''Alchemilla vulgaris'', '' Arabis petraea'', '' Arenaria norvegica'', ''Armeria maritima'', ''Bartsia alpina'', ''Capsella bursa-pastoris'', ''Erysimum'', ...

''.Helgi Hallgrímsson & Guðríður Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir (2004)
''Íslenskt sveppatal I - smásveppir'' [Checklist of Icelandic Fungi I - Microfungi
Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar. Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands [Icelandic Institute of Natural History]. ISSN 1027-832X

Conservation

''Armeria maritima'' is a common species in the UK, however there are several subspecies and in England, subspecies ''elongata'' (Tall Thrift) has vulnerable conservation status and is designated as a species of principal importance for biodiversity conservation under the

NERC Act (2006) The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (c 16), also referred to as the NERC Act (2006), is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In a reorganisation of public bodies involved in rural policy and delivery, the measures d ...

Cultivation

The

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

'Vindictive' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

In popular culture

The

British threepence coin The British threepence piece, usually simply known as a threepence, ''thruppence'', or ''thruppenny bit'', was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound or of one shilling. It was used in the United Kingdom, and earlier in Great ...

issued between 1937 and 1952 had a design of thrift on the reverse. In British slang, thrifty means to have bought a lot for very little money and the phrase is though to be the reason why thrift was used as the emblem for the threepence coin (not worth very much money). As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose sea thrift as the

county flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...

of the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

. Thrift was mentioned in Sir John Betjeman's poem 'A Bay in Anglesea'. Pink Thrift was a memorable part of the description of Kirrin Castle around which many of the adventures of

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have b ...

's Famous Five took place: "The coarse green grass sprang everywhere, and pink thrift grew its cushions in holes and crannies."

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto galleryWildlife Trusts - Thrift
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21036 maritima Flora of North America Garden plants of North America Flora of Europe Flora of South America Plants described in 1809