Rye Harbour Nature Reserve manager Barry Yates highlights the reserve’s flowers in a new book of beautiful photographs called Seaside Flowers, that examine the remarkable lives of our seaside plants. This book is the third funded by the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, along with The Shingle Shore and New Ways of Looking; part of the friends’ commitment to opening the reserve to a wider range of visitors.
“Of course birders have always known Rye Harbour because of the fabulous waders that breed here,” author S C Morgan said, “but the reserve is also full of intriguing plants and exciting and rare invertebrates, and we wanted to tell some of these astonishing stories.” All the seaside flowers on the reserve are specialists, adapted to life in the toughest of conditions and thriving despite poor soil, strong winds, sea salt and glaring sun.
Gathered in the book are the stories of these fascinating plants, from miniature forget-me-nots that grow only a few millimetres high, to towering mulleins that reach a couple of metres tall. From orchids, which depend on symbiotic fungi to survive, to glassworts that have remained the same for millions of years and can protect themselves from a life lived in seawater; each story is individual and demonstrates the complex interconnectedness of this extraordinary ecosystem. Seaside Flowers of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve costs £15.
It is now on sale at the discovery centre, at Avocet Gallery and at local bookshops. Profits from the book go directly to help fund the work of the friends in supporting the reserve.
For any further information contact: S Morgan avocetgallery@gmail.com or 01797 223005.
Image Credits: S Morgan .