Dasispermum suffruticosum almost covering a dune

Stabilising dunes is almost always an arduous business. When modest looking plants contribute significantly to this with no sweat, something may be learnt. Here a large stand of Dasispermum suffruticosum, also known as sea parsley, does its bit without being asked and with hardly any support from another species.

Judging from the vigorous seed production underway here, next season may find them and some offspring as hard at work again, here on the Arniston dunes at Waenhuiskrans (Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bean and Johns, 2005).