Blooming Lamb's Ears

Every year in nature reserve the Slufter on the largest Dutch Wadden Island of Texel, the beautiful purple plant Lamsoor grows and blooms.

Sea lavender

Sea lavender is a plant of sandy salt marshes. In late July and early August, the island salt marshes turn lilac-purple from the flowering sea lavender and pink from the English grass. The little flowers of sea lavender are so close together that it looks as if it is one big flower screen. Flowers of cultivated forms of sea lavender are popular as dried flowers.
Distribution and habitat of sea lavender

Sea lavender is found throughout the wadden region and the delta in salt marsh areas and along dikes, as long as the habitat is not too muddy. It is also found along the other coasts of southern and western Europe. In the north, it grows as far as northern England and the Swedish west coast.
Sea lavender: a beautiful plant

The plant has salt glands on the underside of its leaves, which are used to excrete excess salt. There are around 600 of these glands per square centimeter. On a sunny day you can see the salt crystals sparkling.
Sea lavender on Texel

The Slufter is known for its vast fields of sea lavender. In August it is indeed still quite purple. Yet the quantity decreases every year. In 2006, the area of sea lavender fields was only half of that in 1992!
Names

Sometimes there is confusion between the regional names and the official Dutch name, which is often Dutch in origin. In Zeeland you can buy 'sea lavender' at the greengrocer's, but these are leaves of the plant which is officially called sea aster. Real sea lavender is definitely not edible. Another name for sea lavender is 'Zeeuwse heide'. You can also imagine that a plain full of flowering sea lavender looks like a field of heather. The English also have a nice name for sea lavender. So they compare the fields of sea lavender to the equally purple fields of lavender in the south of France.