Orkney's Sea-spurreys

Just before the end of September I found Lesser Sea-spurrey in flower at the northern end of Kirkwall's Peedie Sea. I've spent a fair bit of time looking for examples of Lesser Sea-spurrey at many locations in the county and invariably it's the Greater Sea-spurrey that I bump into. Elaine Bullard's 'Wildflowers in Orkney' describes Lesser Sea-spurrey as occasional and local, while Greater Sea-spurrey is deemed to be frequent and local - I think  can agree with that. Elaine indicates that Lesser has been recorded in 18 islandised squares and Greater in 23 islandised squares.

Note the differences in petal colour and how the petals are bigger than the sepals for Greater and smaller for Lesser.

Lesser Sea-spurrey

 

 

Greater Sea-spurrey