Dasispermum suffruticosum

The leaves of the sea parsley are leathery as well as fleshy; appropriately tough skinned to survive on the exposed sand (and not too high above it). The sturdy, pale green stems, leaf stalks and inflorescence peduncles can be seen among the leaves in the photo. The stems are finely ribbed and covered in a white bloom. Branching begins at ground level.

The leaves are finely and multiply divided into elaborate patterns that furnish the parsley resemblance. The leaf may become 8 cm long on a stalk half that length.

The flat-topped clusters (or umbels) of white to cream coloured flowers radiating out on long stalks have yellow centres. They may measure more than 3 cm across. Blooming happens from late winter to mid-autumn, but this may vary in the distribution area as the plant grows close to the sea from Saldanha Bay all the way to KwaZulu-Natal (Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bean and Johns, 2005).