Samphire, Golden

Botanical: Inula crithmoides (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Compositae

---Part Used---Herb.

Inula crithmoides, popularly named Golden Samphire, is a species growing in salt marshes and on sea-cliffs, but rare, and in England only plentiful in the Isle of Sheppey.

---Description---It has narrow, fleshy leaves and large yellow flowers, growing singly at the extremity of the branches. Formerly, when Samphire (Crithmum Maritimum) was sold in the London markets for a pickle, the young branches of this species were sometimes mixed with it, causing Green in his Universal Herbal (1832) to indignantly remark: 'but it is a villainous imposition because this plant has none of the warm aromatic taste of the true Samphire.'

See ELECAMPANE.