Cakile maritima, Sea Rocket

Common Name: Sea Rocket

Cakile maritima, commonly known as Sea Rocket, is a common plant in the mustard family. It is widespread around the UK, especially on coastal sand, shingle, dunes, and occasionally rocks. It is a scruffy, branching plant with succulent leaves, some linear, some pinnately lobed. The small flowers may be pale lilac, white or the palest of pinks, and the seedpods can float on sea water without losing their viability, thus helping dispersion. Flowers June to August.

This is an annual plant which grows in clumps or mounds in the sand on beaches and dunes. The shiny leaves are fleshy, green and tinted with purple or magenta, and long-lobed. It has white to light purple flowers and sculpted, segmented, corky brown fruits one to three centimeters long. The fruits float and are water-dispersed.

https://www.uknature.co.uk is a website dedicated to showing the immense diversity of UK nature and wildlife. Our vast range of habitats, from lowland arable to snow covered mountains, from storm-ravaged coastlines to peaceful inland freshwater lakes and rivers, from dry, sandy heaths to deciduous and coniferous forests, all these habitats contribute to the abundance of UK nature. We have wild birds in huge numbers either residing or visiting our shores (597 recorded species as at July 2013) and we must also not forget the humble back garden with its grass lawns, flower beds filled with nectar rich flowers, shrubs and trees, all designed to attract huge numbers of insects such as bees, moths, butterflies and hoverflies; and finally the small ponds which provide safe havens for frogs, toads, newts and even slow worms and grass snakes. www.uknature.co.uk is the showcase for my personal passion, photographing uknature in all its glory. I sincerely hope you all enjoy the fruits of my labours.