​ ONE WORLD ONE OCEAN The Adventures of Ed the Bear
Why is Vegetated Shingle so Special?
Vegetated shingle habitat is rare in the UK and also rare worldwide. The plants are a mixture of coastal plants and terrstrial plants that can live in harsh low nutrient conditions. Infact living on a shingle beach is rather like the conditions in a desert. The plants have to survive hot sun and also drying affects of the wind. There is very little soil to provide food for the plant and there is also very little water. When the sea is rough their is lots of sea spray but the plants can survive in this salty air too.
Vegetated Shingle Plants
​​Sea Kale is one of the largest plants on Shoreham Beach. It has large waxy leaves that protect it against drying out from the hot sun and wind.
The waxy leaves also protect the plant against sea spray. Sea Kale has a large woody root that reaches deep benethe the shingle where their is moisture
It has small white flowers and the seeds have a cork-like coating allowing them to float in the sea and wash up on another beach.
​​Yellow-horned Poppy coastal plant which grows on shingle beaches, cliffs and sand dunes. In sheltered area the plant will grow tall but in exposed areas the plant will grow lower to the ground.
This plant has flesty leaves and stems with hairs that help protect it again the salty sea spray.
The 'horned' part of its name fcomes from the long seed pods that follow on from the bright yellow flowers that appeaer in June.
​Vipers Bugloss (left) can be identified by its bright blue flowers. This plant thrives in low nutrient soils, such as the South Downs, making it well suited to the low nutrient shingle beach.
Many of the plants are only rare when part of the vegetated shingle habitat, while a few plants, Starry Clover and Childing Pink (right) are also rare plants.
PIONEERING PLANTS
