Despite the name, Danish scurvy grass is actually native to Britain. But it is a plant of salty environments. So until fifty years or so ago, it was confined to a limited number of places on the coast. But since then it has spread across the country, mainly growing at the edge of major roads.
Salt from winter gritting splashes onto the roadside soil. The breeze from the slipstreams of traffic helps spread the seeds. Usually it’s found as a line of tiny flowers, the patch only a few inches deep, right by roads in early spring.
These pictures were of a small garden flowerbed facing the main road at Danesford, south of Bridgnorth. The entire bed was filled with the flowers. I don’t know whether they had needed encouragement to take over the whole bed.
