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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🌿 Sea purslane

Halimione portulacoides · Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae)

🐚 Coastline🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Sea purslane wears its leaves two by two, coated in silver” — its opposite, grey leaves distinguish it from all other plants along the drift line.
Sea purslane — Halimione portulacoides

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A small, highly branched dwarf shrub with a spreading or bushy habit, entirely silvery-grey, which forms dense belts just above the glasswort mats in salt marshes. Its thick, opposite, oval to elliptic leaves, silvery on both sides, are its most reliable identifying feature.

  1. opposite leaves (not alternate), thick, oval-elliptic, silvery on both sides
  2. habit of a small spreading or bushy shrub, grey-green to whitish, up to 50 cm high
  3. forms dense belts or mats just above the glasswort zone in salt marshes, never submerged for as long as the latter
Size20-50 cm
FloweringJuly-October, tiny yellowish flowers
Habitatsalt marshes, edges of estuaries and salt pans along the Atlantic (English Channel to North Africa) and Mediterranean coasts, in full sun, exposed to sea spray but flooded less often than glasswort

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Pedunculate sea-purslane (rare) (Halimione pedunculata)aucun (edible as well, but a rare species that should be protected)

To tell them apart: sea purslane has opposite leaves, whereas pedunculate sea-purslane (much rarer) has alternate leaves and fruits on long stalks; if in doubt, do not harvest the rare species

🍽️ Eating it

Partsyoung leaves and shoots
Seasonspring-summer for the tenderest leaves
Tastesalty, slightly tangy, crunchy

Preparation : eat raw in small amounts in salads for its salty crunch, or dry and crumble it as a chip-like condiment; you'll never need to add salt

💊 Healing with it

no major medicinal uses documented beyond its value as a highly mineralized vegetable

Level of evidence : traditional use — Gerbeaud — L'obione faux-pourpier, une plante de bord de mer comestible

⚠️ none known at reasonable dietary doses

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • nicknamed 'crab grass' because its dense mats in salt marshes shelter a wide variety of crustaceans
Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.