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''Crambe maritima'', common name sea kale, seakale or crambe, is a species of halophytic (salt-tolerant) flowering plant in the genus '' Crambe'' of the family Brassicaceae. It grows wild along the coasts of mainland Europe and the British Isles. The plant is related to the
cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&nb ...
and was first cultivated as a vegetable in Britain around the turn of the 18th century. The blanched stems are eaten as a vegetable, and became popular in the mid-19th century.


Description

Growing to tall by wide, it is a mound-forming, spreading perennial. It has large fleshy
glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...
collard-like leaves and abundant white flowers. The globular pods contain a single seed.


Distribution

This species appears to be a European endemic, with a distribution generally confined to two discontinuous coastal regions of Europe; the species is absent from North Africa and the Middle East. It occurs in the Black Sea coasts of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine including the Crimea, but is absent from most of the Mediterranean, recurring again from northern France and the British Isles to the Baltic Sea. In the Iberian Peninsula, Greece and Italy it is replaced by the species ''
Crambe hispanica ''Crambe'' is a genus of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to a variety of habitats in Europe, Turkey, southwest and central Asia and eastern Africa. They carry dense racemes of tiny white or yellow f ...
'', with which its distribution has been confused with until quite recently; the species is absent from Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain, but is said to occur in Croatia. Although it was once believed to be found growing in Israel and Jordan, or alternatively Lebanon and
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, these populations are now classified as ''C. hispanica''. It is very rare in Northern Ireland, but has been recorded from Counties Down and Antrim, and in the rest of the island of Ireland from a number of seaside counties. In England it is primarily found on the southeast coast (extensively along Chesil Beach in Dorset), but it also occurs on stretches of the
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
n and Cumbrian coasts. In Wales it is found on the northern beaches and in Scotland in the extreme southwest. It is uncommonly found along the coast of Norway, particularly so in the Færder National Park.


Ecology

''Crambe maritima'' is a halophyte. meaning that it tolerates salt and is therefore found on coastal beaches where little else thrives. It is usually found above high tide mark on beaches in which the sand includes pebbles or rock. A typical habitat for the species in Britain is vegetated shingle beaches, where it grows in association with yellow horned poppy and
curled dock ''Rumex crispus'', the curly dock, curled dock or yellow dock, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to Europe and Western Asia. Description The plant produces an inflorescence or flower stalk that grows to high. I ...
. It is the dominant plant species in plant communities found in fragmentary, endangered habitats on shingle beaches and bars on the southern Baltic coasts of Sweden, Finland and Estonia, east to Mecklenburg, where it grows together with '' Leymus arenarius'', ''
Euphorbia palustris ''Euphorbia palustris'', the marsh spurge or marsh euphorbia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae, native to marshland throughout much of mainland Europe and western Asia. It is an herbaceous perennial growing to tal ...
'', ''
Honkenya peploides ''Honckenya peploides'', the sea sandwort (UK) or seaside sandplant (Canada), is the only species in the genus ''Honckenya'' of the plant family Caryophyllaceae. Other common names include sea chickweed, sea pimpernal, sea-beach sandwort, and sea ...
'', '' Angelica archangelica'' ssp. ''litoralis'', ''
Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...
'' spp., '' Beta vulgaris'' ssp. ''maritima'', '' Elymus repens'', ''
Geranium robertianum ''Geranium robertianum'', commonly known as herb-Robert, or (in North America) Roberts geranium, is a common species of cranesbill native to Europe and parts of Asia, and North Africa. The plant has many vernacular names, including red robin, de ...
'' ssp. ''rubricaule'', '' Glaucium flavum'', '' Isatis tinctoria'', '' Ligusticum scoticum'', '' Mertensia maritima'', ''
Silene uniflora ''Silene uniflora'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sea campion. Description ''Silene uniflora'' is a herbaceous perennial plant, similar in appearance to the bladder campion ('' Silene vulg ...
'', ''
Tripleurospermum maritimum ''Tripleurospermum maritimum'' (syn. ''Matricaria maritima'') is a species of flowering plant in the aster family commonly known as false mayweed or sea mayweed. It is found in many coastal areas of Northern Europe, including Scandinavia and Ice ...
'' and ''
Valeriana salina ''Valeriana sambucifolia'' is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, wi ...
''. Trapping wind-blown sand, clumps of sea kale may initiate the formation of dunes.


Cultivation and culinary use

There are records from the 18th century of local people along some coasts of England digging out and harvesting the emerging shoots as a vegetable from naturally occurring root crowns in the early springtime. This custom was first reported by Phillip Miller in his 1731 ''Gardener's Dictionary'' as practised among the indigenous peoples of
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, and it was seen once in the 18th century being sold as food at the Chichester market in 1753. John Martyn was the first to publish some practical notes on cultivating the plant in a late edition of Miller's work, but William Curtis was the first to publish a tract about his experiments of growing the plant as a vegetable crop in London in 1799, just before his death, with John Maher giving a reading before the Horticultural Society of London in 1805 which elaborated slightly on the work of Curtis. Both Curtis and Maher recommended growing the plant as a forced, blanched vegetable, growing the rootcrown in a ceramic cylinder which could be capped with a closed blanching pot. Over and about this pot fresh manure would be heaped a few feet deep, the heat produced when this dung rotted would be sufficient to force the plant to bolt as early as December, although later in the winter was recommended. For those without the financial means to purchase expensive blanching pots, Maher suggests covering the plants in a mat covered by a thick layer of gravel, and Curtis mentions simply hoeing a foot of soil over the crown, or piling sea sand, pebbles or coal ash over it, although both agree this will produce a much inferior crop. An area of roughly five square feet could hold a single rootcrown consisting of three plants, which after growing out from seed for three years could be forced at least twice a season to yield four to six shoots of up to twelve inches, although usually much less. Thomas Jefferson grew sea kale at Monticello between 1820 to 1825. It was served at the Royal Pavilion in
Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, when Prince Regent
George IV of the United Kingdom George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
(1762–1830) used it as a seaside retreat. By the Victorian Era sea kale had become "in very general use" as a vegetable in Britain, according to the popular cookbook '' Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management'', in which it is called a type of asparagus, although at nine pennies for a basket of sprouts, it was one of the most expensive vegetables to be had. Its cultivation is discussed in older books on vegetable growing. Wild stocks were severely reduced in Britain by forcing ''in situ'' and collecting for food until the practice was banned in the early 20th century. Sea kale fell out of favour, but in the early 21st century, British chefs made it fashionable again. It is commercially grown by a number of farmers in Britain. A tiny experimental plot of sea kale is cultivated on Texel, a North Sea island in the Netherlands. It is irrigated with adulterated seawater. Maher mentions that he personally considered blanched sea kale a delicacy. Curtis says that as a food, boiled twenty minutes and covered in melted butter, it resembled most asparagus, although with hints of cabbage. He reports most he served it to found it agreeable; although some found it no better than cabbage, others found it superior even to asparagus. Although Curtis had never tried to do so himself, he mentions someone once made a decent stew of it and also theorizes that perhaps it might be well suited to be pickled.


References


External links


Seakale: A New Vegetable Produced as Etiolated Sprouts

Seawater holds key to future food
{{Taxonbar, from=Q165299 Brassicaceae Tumbleweeds Leaf vegetables Perennial vegetables Halophytes Flora of France Flora of Denmark Flora of Estonia Flora of Germany Flora of Ireland Flora of Norway Flora of Turkey Flora of the United Kingdom Flora of Ukraine Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus