Silene littorea
We briefly visited some hides on the salty lagoons of Cabo de Gata which have been used for making salt in Andalucia since Roman times. The big ornithological attraction there is Flamingos and exactly as predicted they were were standing in the lagoon. Of course that also meant there were other salt tolerating plant species to be found and Silene littorea was one. It is normally found growing in sand as this one was and the texts warn that it can be covered in sand grains. This plant was exceptionally glandular hairy and very sandy. The calyces are quite long in this Silene species but hardly discernible under the covering of hairs and sand.
It is mostly found around the coasts of Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar and north Africa with outliers inland and in Italy.
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| Silene littorea No English name |
Cabo de Gata, near Bird Hide, 20th March 2007
Added on January 6th 2021, updated 19th April 2024