Flowers in Israel: Sea fennel

Crithmum, Greek, krithe, barley; refers to the ribbed, ovate seeds.

maritimum, pertaining to the sea.
Samphire, Rock samphire, St Peter’s herb, is derived from the French sampiere, “Saint Pierre”. Samphire – the word is a corruption of St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen because all the plants grow in rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast.

• The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.

Crithmum maritimum is a strongly aromatic, salty herb, contains a volatile oil, pectin, is rich in vitamin C and minerals, has diuretic effects, cleanses toxins and improves digestion.

• Gerard, 1597: “The leaves kept in pickle and eaten in sallads with oile and vinegar is a pleasant sauce for meat, wholesome for the stoppings of the liver, milt and kidnies. It is the pleasantest sauce, most familiar and best agreeing with man’s body.'”
• Culpepper, 1640, deplores that it had in his days much gone out of fashion: “Out of fashion, this is deplorable, as it is a great digestive.”
• This is probably the species mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear –
“Half-way down, Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!”