Scientific name: Armeria maritima Willd.
Common name: Thrift, Sea Pink
Description
Habit: Perennial, to 20 cm high.
Stems: Erect.
Leaves: In dense basal tufts, without stipules, undivided, narrowly linear, untoothed.
Flowers: Pink, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, tightly packed and numerous in hemispherical heads on unbranched and hairy flower stalks 20 cm long; heads surrounded by a series of bracts, the outer green, inner membranous, the bracts continued down the peduncle as a sheath; calyx fused forming a tube with 5 fine lobes, dry and membranous; petals 5, free or slightly fused at the base; stamens 5; ovary superior, 1-celled, styles 5.
Fruits: A 1-seeded capsule, minute.
Habitat: Salt-marshes, maritime rocks, grassy cliff-tops, other places by the sea, also on rocky mountain tops.Distribution: Very frequent and locally abundant by the sea, rare on mountains.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No