Salicornia - samphire
Gourmets, grab your forks! Normally only seen in three-hat restaurants, samphire is a succulent vegetable delicacy for those in the know. Samphire snackers include Rottnest quokkas and the endangered orange-bellied parrot, so plant this one and you might get a new visitor.
You might know it by another name as this plant has a lot of aliases : glasswort, pickleweed, sea asparagus, beadweed, chickenclaws, ureure, and its botanical name translates to salt-horn.
Word of the Day : Halophyte : salt plant. You'd usually need to forage samphire from salt marshes and saline mudflats; much more convenient is to grow it in a tub or saltwater pond in your back yard.
Dishes shown : samphire nettle seaweed cucumber risotto from Xerta, Barcelona; swordfish with samphire capsicum mushrooms from Kilmore, Northern Ireland; lemon sole with samphire shrimp shiitake bacon potato from Netherlands; surf & turf sirloin samphire salad from Paris; ceviche with choco avocado cucumber samphire from Malva, Mexico
Plant images Michael Coghlan; Rottnest quokka Dr Mary Gilham Archive ; Food images : Conall ; Ward van Wanrooij ; T Tseng ; Lou Stejskal ; Omid Tavallai cropped to size.
Salicornia quinqueflora, Sarcocornia quinqueflora - beaded samphire
APPEARANCE : Low-growing mat-forming coastal succulent, native to many frost-free parts of the world including Australia. Branching upright green fleshy stems that redden at the tips.USE FOR : Pots, wetlands, coastal gardens, erosion control, bushtucker.
PLANTING : Plant in free-draining soil in sun for maximum colour and compact shape. Grows in sand, salty marshland, and frontline coastal locations. Drought tolerant once established. Frost tender.
CARE : Water until the plant is established, usually around 12 weeks. Once established, water when soil is dry, with dilute salt water if plant is in a container. Keep it in a sunny position for at least part of the day. Harvest young stems in spring-summer.
HEIGHT & WIDTH: 0.2m H x 2m W.
YOUR PLANTS : These are tubestock plants, healthy young plants with new roots that will establish quickly in your garden. The pot size is 80mm high and 42 mm wide.
You can see an example in the image gallery.
What is tubestock?
| Plants For State | ACT,NSW,NT,QLD,SA,TAS,VIC,WA |
|---|---|
| In Stock | in 4-6 weeks |
