Sea aster

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Colletes halophilus, the sea aster bee, provisions its cells with this plant's pollen and nothing else, and nests in the sea walls and dry banks above the marsh. Its whole life depends on the two habitats being adjacent.

Worth knowing

A generous late nectar and pollen source in a habitat with almost no other flowering plants.

Flowering

In flower

July to October (northern hemisphere)

A late season, running well into autumn on the marsh.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun, tolerant of salt and of periodic flooding, and happy in ordinary garden soil that does not dry out. It does not require salt to grow.

Size

30-100 cm tall.

Native range

Coastal Europe, North Africa and Asia, on saltmarsh, estuary, sea wall and coastal cliff.

Suits

Small gardens, Containers and window boxes, Large gardens

• Grows perfectly well in an ordinary garden despite its saltmarsh origins — salt is a tolerance rather than a requirement.
• Give it moisture; it dislikes dry soil.
• An excellent late-season alternative to Michaelmas daisies, and rather more elegant.

What it looks like

A fleshy-leaved perennial with narrow succulent leaves and loose sprays of daisy flowers with pale lilac rays and yellow centres. A rayless form is common in some populations and looks quite different.