Crambe maritima
{{short description|Species of plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Sea kale
| image = Crambe_Maritima_Estonia.jpg
| image_caption = Growing in Estonia
| genus = Crambe
| species = maritima
| authority = L.
}}
Image:Crambe maritima flowers 062811.jpg
File:Shingle beach and sea kale - geograph.org.uk - 1442148.jpg, Suffolk]]
Crambe maritima, common name sea kale,{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Sea-kale}} seakale or crambe, is a species of halophytic (salt-tolerant) flowering plant in the genus Crambe of the family Brassicaceae. It grows wild along the coasts of mainland Europe and the British Isles.
The plant is related to the cabbage and was first cultivated as a vegetable in Britain around the turn of the 18th century. The blanched stems are eaten as a vegetable, and became popular in the mid-19th century.
Description
Growing to {{convert|75|cm|0|abbr=on}} tall by {{convert|60|cm|0|abbr=on}} wide, it is a mound-forming, spreading perennial.{{cite book|title=RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants|year=2008|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|location=United Kingdom|isbn=978-1405332965|pages=1136}} It has large fleshy glaucous collard-like leaves and abundant white flowers. The globular pods contain a single seed.
Distribution
This species appears to be a European endemic, with a distribution generally confined to two discontinuous coastal regions of Europe; the species is absent from North Africa and the Middle East. It occurs in the Black Sea coasts of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine including the Crimea, but is absent from most of the Mediterranean, recurring again from northern France and the British Isles to the Baltic Sea. In the Iberian Peninsula, Greece and Italy it is replaced by the species Crambe hispanica, with which its distribution has been confused with until quite recently; the species is absent from Portugal, Greece, Italy{{cite web |url=http://ww2.bgbm.org/EuroPlusMed/PTaxonDetail.asp?NameCache=Crambe%20maritima&PTRefFk=7200000 |title=Details for: Crambe maritima |last=Marhold |first=K. |date=2006 |website=The Euro+Med PlantBase |publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem |access-date=5 July 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://ww2.bgbm.org/EuroPlusMed/PTaxonDetail.asp?NameId=14158&PTRefFk=7200000 |title=Details for: Crambe hispanica |last=Marhold |first=K. |date=2006 |website=The Euro+Med PlantBase |publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem |access-date=5 July 2020}} and Spain,{{cite web |url=http://www.anthos.es/ |title=Crambe |author= |date=2 March 2012 |website=Anthos |publisher= Fundación Biodiversidad; Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente; and the Real Jardín Botánico |language=es |access-date=9 July 2020}}{{cite book |last=Gómez Campo |first=C. |date=2003 |chapter=71. Crambe L. |chapter-url=http://www.floraiberica.es/floraiberica/texto/pdfs/04_072_71_Crambe.pdf |title=Flora iberica |url=http://www.floraiberica.es/index.php |language=es |volume=4 |location=Madrid |publisher=Real Jardín Botánico |pages=429–431 }} but is said to occur in Croatia.
Although it was once believed to be found growing in Israel and Jordan, or alternatively Lebanon and Syria,{{cite web |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:281657-1 |title=Crambe maritima L. |author= |date=2017 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanical Garden Kew |access-date=9 July 2020}} these populations are now classified as C. hispanica.{{cite web |url=http://flora.org.il/en/plants/search/crambe/ |title=Search Crambe |last1=Danin |first1=Avinoam |last2=Fragman-Sapir |first2=Ori |date=2020 |website=Flora of Israel Online |publisher=Jerusalem Botanical Gardens |access-date=9 July 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://florasyria.com/en/details/1195 |title=Crambe hispanica L. |author= |date=2020 |website=Flora Syria On Line |publisher=FloraSyria |access-date=9 July 2020}}
It is very rare in Northern Ireland, but has been recorded in Counties Down and Antrim,Hackney, P. 1992. Stewart' and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Third edition. Institute of Irish Studies and Queen's University of Belfast. {{ISBN|0 85389 446 9}} (HB) and in a number of other coastal counties in the island of Ireland.Scannell, M. J. P. and Synnott, D. M. 1972. Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland. Dublin, Published by the Stationery Office{{cite web|title=Crambe maritima|url=http://crambemaritima.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912023759/http://crambemaritima.org/ |archive-date=12 September 2019 |access-date=7 July 2013}} In England it is primarily found on the southeast coast (extensively along Chesil Beach in Dorset), but it also occurs on stretches of the East Anglian and Cumbrian coasts. In Wales it is found on the northern beaches and in Scotland in the extreme southwest.{{cite web |url=https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/sea-kale |title=Sea kale Crambe maritima |author= |date=2020 |website=Plant & Fungi Species |publisher=Plantlife |access-date=8 July 2020}}
It is uncommonly found along the coast of Norway, particularly so in the Færder National Park.{{cite web |url=http://www.nrk.no/vestfold/viltvoksende-oy-vekster-kan-lose-matproblemer-1.12789571 |title=Viltvoksende øy-vekster kan løse matproblemer |language=no |trans-title=Wild-growing island crops could solve food problems |first=Hege Therese |last=Holtung |work=NRK |date=8 February 2016 |access-date=4 October 2022}}
Ecology
File:Shoreham Beach SNCI - geograph.org.uk - 179687.jpg nature reserve, UK.]]
Crambe maritima is a halophyte, meaning that it tolerates salt and is therefore found on coastal beaches where little else thrives.{{cite book |last1=Webb |first1=D. A. |last2=Parnell |first2=J. |last3=Doogue |first3=D. |year=1996 |title=An Irish Flora |location=Dundalk |publisher=Dundalgan Press |isbn=0-85221-131-7}} It is usually found above high tide mark on beaches in which the sand includes pebbles or rock.{{cite journal |last=Maher |first=John |orig-year=1812 |title=III. On the Cultivation of the Crambe Maritima of Linné, or Sea Kale |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44162120 |journal=Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London |edition=3rd |year=1820 |volume=1 |pages=13–20 |access-date=7 July 2020}} A typical habitat for the species in Britain is vegetated shingle beaches, where it grows in association with yellow horned poppy and curled dock.{{cite book |last=Pigott |first=C. D. |date=2000 |title=British Plant Communities |volume=5 – Maritime Communities and Vegetation of Open Habitats |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=128–129 |isbn=0-521-64476-3}} It is the dominant plant species in plant communities found in fragmentary, endangered habitats on shingle beaches and bars on the southern Baltic coasts of Sweden, Finland and Estonia, east to Mecklenburg, where it grows together with Leymus arenarius, Euphorbia palustris, Honkenya peploides, Angelica archangelica ssp. litoralis, Atriplex spp., Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima, Elymus repens, Geranium robertianum ssp. rubricaule, Glaucium flavum, Isatis tinctoria, Ligusticum scoticum, Mertensia maritima, Silene uniflora, Tripleurospermum maritimum and Valeriana salina.{{cite web |url=https://eunis.eea.europa.eu/habitats/707 |title=Baltic Crambe maritima'' communities |author= |date=22 April 2019 |website=EUNIS habitat classification 2012 amended 2019 |publisher=European Environment Agency, European Union |access-date=8 July 2020}} Trapping wind-blown sand, clumps of sea kale may initiate the formation of dunes.{{cite book |last1=Packham |first1=John R. |last2=Willis |first2=Arthur John |date=1997 |title=Ecology of Dunes, Salt Marsh and Shingle |location=Cambridge |publisher=Springer |page=163 |isbn=0-412-57980-4}}
Cultivation and culinary use
File:Sea Kale as decorative plant in Birling Gap garden.jpg garden on dry sandy soil by the sea]]
There are records from the 18th century of local people along some coasts of England digging out and harvesting the emerging shoots as a vegetable from naturally occurring root crowns in the early springtime. This custom was first reported by Phillip Miller in his 1731 Gardener's Dictionary as practised among the indigenous peoples of Sussex, and it was seen once in the 18th century being sold as food at the Chichester market in 1753. John Martyn was the first to publish some practical notes on cultivating the plant in a late edition of Miller's work, but William Curtis was the first to publish a tract about his experiments of growing the plant as a vegetable crop in London in 1799, just before his death, with John Maher giving a reading before the Horticultural Society of London in 1805 which elaborated slightly on the work of Curtis. Both Curtis and Maher recommended growing the plant as a forced, blanched vegetable, growing the root crown in a ceramic cylinder which could be capped with a closed blanching pot. Over and about this pot fresh manure would be heaped a few feet deep, the heat produced when this dung rotted would be sufficient to force the plant to bolt as early as December, although later in the winter was recommended. For those without the financial means to purchase expensive blanching pots, Maher suggests covering the plants in a mat covered by a thick layer of gravel, and Curtis mentions simply hoeing a foot of soil over the crown, or piling sea sand, pebbles or coal ash over it, although both agree this will produce a much inferior crop. An area of roughly five square feet could hold a single root crown consisting of three plants, which after growing out from seed for three years could be forced at least twice a season to yield four to six shoots of up to twelve inches, although usually much less.{{cite book |last=Curtis |first=William |author-link=William Curtis |date=1799 |title=Directions for cultivating the Crambe Maritima: or sea Kale, for the use of the table |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-q7ltAEACAAJ |location=London |publisher=Stephen Couchman |pages=1–18}}
File:Blanched Crambe Maritima.JPG
Thomas Jefferson grew sea kale at Monticello between 1820 and 1825.{{cite web |url=https://www.masshist.org/thomasjeffersonpapers/doc?id=garden_55&archive=garden&query=sea%20kale&tag=text&num=10&rec=3&numRecs=19#firstmatch |title=Garden Book, 1766-1824, page 55, by Thomas Jefferson [electronic edition] |last=Jefferson |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Jefferson |website=Thomas Jefferson Papers |publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society |access-date=7 July 2020}} It was served at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, when Prince Regent George IV of the United Kingdom (1762–1830) used it as a seaside retreat.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} By the Victorian Era sea kale had become "in very general use" as a vegetable in Britain, according to the popular cookbook Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, in which it is called a type of asparagus, although at nine pennies for a basket of sprouts, it was one of the most expensive vegetables to be had.{{cite book |last=Beeton |first=Isabella |author-link=Isabella Beeton |date=1861 |title=Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10136/pg10136.html |location=London |publisher=S. O. Beeton |page=1150 }} Its cultivation is discussed in older books on vegetable growing.{{Cite book |last1=Witham Fogg |first1=H.G. |date=1966 |title=Vegetables All the Year Round |location=London |publisher=The Garden Book Club |oclc=561245570 |pages=96–97 }} Wild stocks were severely reduced in Britain by forcing in situ and collecting for food until the practice was banned in the early 20th century. Sea kale fell out of favour, but in the early 21st century, British chefs made it fashionable again. It is commercially grown by a number of farmers in Britain.{{Cite news |last1=Mesure |first1=Susie |date=23 March 2014 |title=Like seaweed? Like kale? You'll love sea kale! |journal=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/like-seaweed-like-kale-youll-love-sea-kale-9210281.html |access-date=2020-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424050359/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/like-seaweed-like-kale-youll-love-sea-kale-9210281.html |archive-date=2017-04-24}}
A tiny experimental plot of sea kale is cultivated on Texel, a North Sea island in the Netherlands. It is irrigated with adulterated seawater.{{Cite web|title=Zilte Zeekool|url=https://edepot.wur.nl/159502}}
Maher mentions that he personally considered blanched sea kale a delicacy. Curtis says that as a food, boiled twenty minutes and covered in melted butter, it resembled most asparagus, although with hints of cabbage. He reports most he served it to found it agreeable; although some found it no better than cabbage, others found it superior even to asparagus. Although Curtis had never tried to do so himself, he mentions someone once made a decent stew of it and also theorizes that perhaps it might be well suited to be pickled.
References
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External links
- [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/v1-419.html Seakale: A New Vegetable Produced as Etiolated Sprouts]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7765109.stm Seawater holds key to future food]
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Category:Flora of the United Kingdom