Sea Mayweed - Tripleurospermum maritimum - White Hebrides Wildflowers

Height up to 2 feet
Sea mayweed is classed as a bi-ennial or a perennial herb, its height can be anything from 4inches to 2 feet. The plants form large clumps. THe sea mayweed plant is often woody at the base

Habitat
This plant loves rocky shores, fissures in the coastal rocks, roadsides, ditches, fields, however despite its name the sea mayweed isn't exclusively a coastal plant.

Similar to Scented Mayweed
It is very similar to "Scented Mayweed" though sea mayweed does tend to be more often a coastal plant, it is also stouter that the Scented Mayweed and spreads further. Also the stems of the sea mayweed often have a purplish tinge to them.

 

Flowers July - September
The flowers appear between July and September. Flowerheads are up to 45mm across and look very much like large daisies. They are flattish when first open, but become conical as they age. The flowers have yellow centres (disc florets) and white petals. .Disc-florets form a hemispherical dome. Ray florets often swept backwards slightly.

White Daisy - Like Flowers
It has white daisy like flowers . leaves made up of blunt, somewhat fleshy, linear segments which can reach up to 50 mm across.

Sea Mayweed
The sea mayweed plant is frequently seen here in The Western Isles, it really is a much underrated wildflower that often displays in rock crevices and it is in these settings that I think it is one of the prettiest of the Hebrides White wildflowers

Leaves
As with many maritime plants, sea mayweed has fleshy leaves which help it to survive in the harsh salty environment.

The leaves are alternate and are threadlike and wispy and are divided into short segments

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