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Brassicaceae family

Sea Kale Crambe maritima

Also known as: seakale

Sea Kale is an introduced perennial herb, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 1.4 ft.

More about this plant

Crambe maritima, common name sea kale, seakale or crambe, is a species of halophytic (salt-tolerant) flowering plant in the genus Crambe of the family Brassicaceae. It grows wild along the coasts of mainland Europe and the British Isles. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Conditions

Sources · Conditions

Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness

Hardiness: ≥ zone 9 derived from its U.S. range

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

Height: 1.4 ft
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Broadleaf

In the garden

Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

Chop-and-drop biomass — Soft, low-density wood is quick-growing and easy to cut back — coppice it and drop the trimmings in place as mulch.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

✦ Bees 3 bee visitors

3 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Sea Kale :

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee

Andrena nigroaenea · mining bee

Andrena haemorrhoa · Early Mining Bee

Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →

Wildlife & visitors 2 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Sea Kale — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

2 adult butterfly & moth species are recorded nectaring at its flowers:

Pieris brassicae · Large White

Pieris rapae · Small White

Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (3) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Growth strategy Derived

We place each species on Grime’s competitor–stress-tolerator–ruderal (C–S–R) triangle using the globally-calibrated “StrateFy” method: leaf size drives the competitor score, dense low-area leaves the stress-tolerator score, and thin high-area leaves the ruderal score. The result is a C/S/R percentage mix and one of 19 strategy classes; we show it in plain words and keep the percentages for the curious.

Honest limits: A species-mean strategy from pooled global leaf measurements — a broad ecological signal, not a precise per-plant or per-site value. Derived, never a measured fact.

Pierce, S. et al. (2017) A global method for calculating plant CSR ecological strategies applied across biomes world-wide. Functional Ecology 31:444–457.

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (22) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)

[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)

[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[09] Ecological value — GloBI

[10] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[12] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[13] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[14] Plant strategy — Derived — Grime’s C–S–R strategy via StrateFy (Pierce et al. 2017) from Díaz 2022 / TRY-81 leaf traits

[15] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones

[16] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)

[17] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[18] Chromosomes — ChromoDB — IAPT/IOPB chromosome data series (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0)

[19] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)

[20] Bee visitors — Noori et al. 2026 (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) · via GloBI

[21] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI

[22] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

1 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below and in Bees & wildlife.

Caterpillar host 1

Flower-visitor value derived 2

Recorded flower-visitor breadth — observations, not a nectar measurement. open data

⚠ non-native — reduced keystone value

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 1/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Introduced to the U.S.

Recorded in 2 states.

Open occurrence records place it in 1 counties across 1 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Introduced — Conterminous United States

Recorded in 2 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Introduced

Wetland indicator FAC

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density very low

0.15 g/cm³

light, fast wood — quick biomass for chop-and-drop mulch

Seed mass medium

72 mg

small seed — straightforward to sow

Leaf build medium

Medium

mid-range leaf build (measured leaf area per weight 9.1 mm²/mg)

Leaf size very large

Very large

very large, bold leaves (measured leaf area ~314 cm²) — a coarse, dramatic texture

Growth strategy competitor

Vigorous competitor

a fast, resource-grabbing grower — thrives in rich, open ground and can crowd out neighbours

Mycorrhiza no symbiosis

Non-mycorrhizal (NM)

forms little or no mycorrhiza — feeds itself directly, so it gains less from fungal soil networks

Chromosomes recorded

2n = 30

somatic chromosome number

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.15 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 72 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 9.1 mm²/mg)

Leaf sturdiness — how dense & firm the leaf tissue is. Sturdier leaves hold up better to drought and browsing. (10% dry matter)

Growth strategy — where this plant sits on the three-way trade-off between out-competing neighbours, enduring hardship, and colonising disturbed ground. Competitor 100% · Stress-tolerator 0% · Pioneer 0% (Grime’s CSR, class C; derived via the StrateFy method, Pierce et al. 2017)

Photosynthesis — the standard “C3” pathway most plants use, most active in cooler, moister, moderate-light conditions. (pathway C3)

Mycorrhiza NM — the root–fungus partnership it forms (AM = most plants; ECM = most forest trees; ERM = heaths; NM = none). Trades sugars for water & nutrients via shared soil networks.

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Sea Kale Crambe maritima

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

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