Sea Pink

Here's another little flower that starts to bloom about this time of year but continues to brighten our rocky sea shores right through to autumn. It's called Sea Pink or Thrift. I suspect it gets the latter name from its remarkable ability to thrive in the tiniest cracks of large boulders or in places where there is about as much soil as you would find under your fingernails after a day's gardening. This vigorous clump is growing on the eastern side of Clover Point, overlooking Ross Bay.

On the Rocks

I mentioned yesterday my fondness for cacti and succulents and one of the reasons for that fondness is admiration for how these little plants survive and even thrive under very difficult circumstances. While out at Fisgard Lighthouse on the weekend I also came across these tough little plants - not cacti or succulents. I think they are some variety of wild onion (Allium species) but I can't find anything in my field guides that will let me to be more specific and their grip on life in the tiny cracks they were growing from seemed so precarious I was not about to dig around to look at their roots or bulbs. The photo on the left may help in identification and I welcome suggestions as to what they are. Friday, May 14, 2010 Yesterday I picked up a copy of Lewis Clark's Field guide to wild flowers of the sea coast in the Pacific Northwestin a local thrift store and found a lovely picture of this little plant that leaves no doubt as to its identification. This is Sea Pink, aka Thrift (Armeria martitima).