Bee Plant of the Month: Thrift : 39


compost. Put in a propagator at 16–18 °C and keep damp. The seeds will usually germinate within a month. Transplant seedlings once they are large enough to handle but grow on carefully in cool conditions until planting out. Thrift requires no pruning but dead- heading helps to keep it fl owering. Removing dead foliage in spring keeps the plants tidy.


Pollination Strategy BEE PLANT OF THE MONTH Thrift Bridget Beattie, PhD, NDB M


ay is such a beautiful month in our temperate climate, with the


countryside and gardens filling with colour after the dreary days of winter. Fruit trees are blooming and early wildflowers add to the expectation of seasonal renewal. Thrift is an early-fl owering plant, delightful in form and colour as well as being valuable for honey bees, bumblebees and many solitary bees, providing nectar and pollen. Flies, wasps and butterfl ies are attracted to it, rove and ground beetles take shelter in its tussocks and the thrift clearwing moth is found on it in coastal areas.


Seaside Favourite Thrift belongs to the same family of


fl owering plants as plumbago and sea lavenders and is often known as ladies’ cushions or cliff rose, or as sea thrift or sea pink, refl ecting its favourite habitat near the sea. The genus name Armeria derives from the old French name ‘armoire’ for Dianthus, which it resembles, and maritima fairly obviously is Latin for ‘of the sea’. There are more than 100 species in the genus Armeria, most of which are Mediterranean, but A. maritima is native to many coastal regions of the northern hemisphere. It is


May 2015 Vol 97 No 5


common in the British Isles on coastal cliffs and salt marshes and on inland mountain ledges, where it forms spectacular drifts.


Flowering Season


This compact evergreen perennial herb has a long fl owering season, from April to October. Rosettes of straight, narrow leaves arise from a woody rootstock to form small clumps or cushion-like tufts up to 10 cm in height spreading to 30 cm. White or pink fi ve-petalled fl owers, 8 mm across, held on long leafl ess stems which may reach 30 cm in height, form a dense globular head of up to 2.5 cm in diameter.


Garden Plant Although known as a seaside plant, thrift


grows well in any garden. It is drought- resistant, tolerant of poor soil but needing good drainage and should be grown in full sun. It looks very well in a rock garden, at the front of a border, or grown in a trough. Equally, it is at home in a wildfl ower meadow.


Thrift may be grown from seed in spring or early autumn, or clumps may be split in spring to make divisions. Soak the seeds in warm water for several hours then scatter them on the surface of pots of well-soaked compost and cover lightly with more


Thrift is an interesting plant botanically for its strategy to avoid self-pollination. The pollen is creamy-yellow, 75 µm with three furrows but with two types of surface. Two forms of homogamous (male and female parts mature simultaneously) fl owers exist, but the female stigma and the male pollen grains exhibit dimorphism (two different types), cob and papillate. The stigmatic surface of the cob type is covered in rounded bumps like a corn cob whereas the other has lots of small fl eshy projections called papillae. The pollen grains are of two types, sculptured to match, but are incompatible with the stigmas of the fl ower from which they came. Each fl ower therefore can only receive pollen from a fl ower of the opposite type and cannot be self-pollinated. Neat!


Medicine and Folklore


From the apothecary, thrift used to be used to treat obesity, urinary infections and nervous disorders and it has antibiotic properties. However, applied topically it may cause dermatitis. Folklore says that anyone with thrift in the


garden will never be poor. Indeed, for those who can remember pre-decimalisation, the obverse of the old threepenny bit coin, 1937 to 1952, carries a depiction of the plant. A reminder, perhaps, to be thrifty? ♠


Fact File: Thrift


Armeria maritima Family: Plumbaginaceae


www.bee-craft.com


r


g


W


B


u


e


A


l k


i


n r


i d


g


e


e


s


s


Claire Waring


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48