Sea Kale

Other names

Sea Cabbage, Sea Colewort, Seakale

Growth habit

Herbaceous

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Native distribution

Europe, N Africa, SW Asia

Biocultural value

A coastal European perennial whose tender young leafstalks can be cooked and eaten like asparagus.

Location

Robison Herb Garden

Source of plant

J.L. Hudson, Seedsman

Description

Perennial, 30-75cm. Base thick, fleshy, branched, purple-grey or slightly woody. Stem thick, branched, glabrous, glaucous purple. Leaves 12-30cm, fleshy, blue-glaucous, elliptic or nearly round, undulate-crispate to irregularly pinnatifid; flowering stem leaves becoming narrower on upper part of stem. Flowers 10-16mm diameter, in dense corymbose racemes to 0.5m; petals 6-10mm, blade white, claw tinged green. Fruit lower segments 1-4mm, upper segments 7-12mm, ovoid; pedicel 8-26mm.

USDA Hardiness Zone

5

Special characteristics

food