Rock samphire
Crithmum maritimum
A sprawling, blue-green umbellifer of sea cliffs and shingle, with solid ribbed stems and leaves divided into narrow, fleshy segments that snap cleanly when bent. Flat umbels of tiny yellow-green flowers open from midsummer. The whole plant is strongly aromatic, resinous and carroty, and the young shoots have long been pickled in vinegar. It is unrelated to marsh samphire, a saltmarsh glasswort.
Rock crevices, cliff faces, shingle and old sea walls within reach of salt spray, always coastal. Frequent along the south and west coasts of England, Wales and Ireland, scarcer northwards along the east coast.
Edible raw in small amounts and more often cooked or pickled; the flavour is intense and large quantities can be purgative. On cliff ledges the picking itself is the main risk. Deadly hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) shares damp coastal ground: its leaflets are flat and celery-like above white umbels, never fleshy and cylindrical below yellow-green ones.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Growth habit
A low, clump-forming perennial to about 30cm, sprawling out of rock crevices and shingle with a woody base and solid, ribbed, repeatedly branched stems. It never forms the tall single stem of the larger coastal umbellifers.
Leaves
Divided two or three times into narrow, cylindrical, grey-green segments that are thick and firm like a succulent and snap rather than fold. Flat, celery-like or fern-like leaflets on a coastal umbellifer are something else.
Flowers
Dense flat-topped umbels of very small yellow-green flowers from July, ringed by narrow downturned bracts. The colour is the quick check: almost every other umbellifer on the shore flowers white.
Seed pods
Oval ridged fruits around 5mm long, drying corky and buoyant so they travel on the tide. Picked green they are firm and aromatic, and are the part usually pickled late in the season.
Smell when crushed
Crush a leaf segment between finger and thumb: a strong resinous, carrot-and-varnish scent. A leaf that smells of parsley, celery or nothing at all is not this plant, and on a cliff that answer matters.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:57:45.946Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit