A perennial of coastal areas, Seaside Daisy is found on old stone walls and coastal bluffs. The plant bears flowers from July to September on short hairy stems. These daisy flowers (2 cm across) have pink-mauve-purple ray florets which surround a circle of golden disc florets. The glaucous, spoon-shaped leaves are stalked and firm and the plant grows from a rhizome. It is not a native plant but originated in North America where it grows on beaches and under coniferous trees and is also known as Beach Aster and Seaside Fleabane. It belongs to the Asteraceae family.
I first recorded and photographed this plant at Bannow Bay, County Wexford in 2011 but the plant was growing very high on the wall of the ruined church. It was so difficult to reach that I don’t have a photograph of the flowerhead ‘face-on’. I hope to return next summer for that. Footnote: I did, in 2017. Same place.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
