This is a common plant of upper beaches and salt marshes and as its common name suggests ssp kali is very spiny. The flowers are yellow and very tiny and hard to make out without a hand lens. There is another subspecies ssp tragus which is an introduction from Europe and usually has no apical spines on the leaves.

Salsola kali ssp kali is found around much of the coastline of the British Isles but there is not much on the outer islands or the far northern and north western coasts of Scotland.

Salsola kali ssp kali Prickly Saltwort Spurn Point, Yorkshire 5th July 2004 Previous   Next	Salsola kali ssp kali Prickly Saltwort Warkworth beach, Northumberland, 23rd August 2005 Previous   Next
Salsola kali ssp kali Prickly Saltwort	Salsola kali ssp kali Prickly Saltwort fruits

LHS: Oxwich dunes, South Wales 9th July 2009: RHS: Lindisfarne 15th July 2006

Added on February 3rd 2005, updated 27th January 2012