Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Sea-purslane, Atriplex portulacoides, Lus an Ghaill
Photographs: Greggane Strand, Co. Cork

Sea Purslane
Atriplex portulacoides
Lus an Ghaill
Family: Chenopodiaceae

Flowering time: July-September. Small shrub. Native.

Short spikes of very small greyish flowers with yellow stamens and 5 sepals. Paired bracteoles enclose the triangular fruit. The lower leaves are whitish-mealy, opposite, un-toothed and elliptical, upper leaves are narrower. Much-branched, straggling growth with erect flowering branches on prostrate woody stems. Height to 80cm.

Coastal on drier salt-marshes and at the edge of inter-tidal creeks and pools. Most frequent on the south and east Irish coasts

Sea Purslane, Atriplex portulacoides, Lus an Ghaill

Sea Purslane, Atriplex portulacoides, Lus an Ghaill
Sea-purslane, Atriplex portulacoides, Lus an Ghaill

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