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Suaeda maritima

herbaceous seepweed

Coastal Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia

Overview

Suaeda maritima is an annual halophyte of coastal salt marshes, growing 4-20 inches (10-50 cm) tall with a much-branched, often sprawling form. The semi-cylindrical leaves are fleshy and glaucous blue-green, 0.2-1 inch (5-25 mm) long, and frequently flush red to purple late in the season and in exposed, saline conditions. Stems are succulent and faintly ribbed. Minute green flowers, each 1-2 mm across and without petals, sit in small clusters in the leaf axils from midsummer into autumn, followed by tiny lens-shaped seeds. The species grows in waterlogged, highly saline ground that excludes most other plants, tolerating periodic tidal flooding and storing salt within its tissues. It colonizes the lower and middle marsh, often among glasswort and cordgrass, and completes its whole life cycle in one season from seed. In cultivation it needs a saline or brackish substrate kept constantly wet, conditions that are hard to reproduce in an ordinary garden and that limit its use as a border plant. The young succulent shoots are edible and have long been gathered as a marsh vegetable. After flowering the plant turns straw-brown and dies back completely, leaving no winter structure.

Native Range

Suaeda maritima is native to coastal regions of Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia, where it occurs on salt marshes, tidal mudflats, and brackish shorelines. Its range follows saline coastal habitats and does not extend to inland freshwater sites.

Suggested Uses

Used in coastal restoration and salt-marsh planting where saline, waterlogged ground excludes most other species. The succulent young shoots are harvested as an edible marsh vegetable. It has little role in conventional garden borders.

How to Identify

Recognized by fleshy, semi-cylindrical blue-green leaves 0.2-1 inch (5-25 mm) long that lack a flattened blade and often redden in sun-exposed sites. The much-branched stems are succulent and faintly ribbed, reaching 4-20 inches (10-50 cm). Tiny green petalless flowers cluster in the leaf axils rather than in showy spikes. Its restriction to saline marsh soils distinguishes it from similar inland annuals.

Appearance

Size & Dimensions

Height4" - 1'8"

Width/Spread6" - 1'4"

Colors

Flower Colors

Foliage Colors

red

Fall Foliage Colors

Bloom Information

Bloom Period

~12 weeks

Summer Fall

Inconspicuous green flowers open from July to October, clustered in the upper leaf axils. Each is 1-2 mm across, without petals, and wind- or self-pollinated. Lens-shaped seeds ripen through autumn before the plant dies back.

Detailed Descriptions

Foliage Description

Blue-green flushing red to purple

Growing Conditions

Sun Requirements

SunFull Sun

Requires 6-12 hours of direct sunlight daily

• Full Sun: 6+ hours of direct sunlight

• Partial Shade: 3-6 hours of direct sunlight

• Full Shade: Less than 3 hours of direct sunlight

Soil Requirements

pH Range7.0 - 8.0(Alkaline)

357912

Soil Types

silt clay sand

Drainagewet

Water & Climate

Water Needs

High

Care & Maintenance

Care Guide

Suaeda maritima grows in full sun on permanently moist, saline or brackish soil. It tolerates tidal flooding and salt levels that kill most garden plants, and it will not persist in ordinary freshwater conditions. The substrate should be heavy and waterlogged, from sandy silt to clay, with a pH near neutral to slightly alkaline. As an annual it is raised from seed sown onto wet saline ground in spring. No supplementary feeding is needed in its natural marsh setting. Plants senesce and die after setting seed in autumn.