Photographs: Co. Clare and Co. Cork

Sea Aster Tripolium pannonicum (Aster tripolium) Luibh bhléine Family: Asteraceae Flowering time: July-October. Short-lived perennial. Native. Clusters of blue, pale mauve or occasionally white flowers with yellow centres. Leaves are fleshy and more/less untoothed, the basal leaves stalked, the stem leaves narrower and linear-lanceolate. An erect, branched, hairless plant, the stems sometimes reddish. Height usually 20-100cm but plants to 2m. tall recorded in Waterford. Mainly coastal on salt-marshes and estuary banks, also grows among rocks and on cliffs

Sea Aster, Tripolium pannonicum, Luibh bhléine