Salt sandspurry	Status LU: established. 1st record: LU & ITW 2019.
	Mieres-Spierkelchen	Status Eur.: native.
	n/a	RA: ISEIA: C2. Harmonia+: n/a
	Salz-Schuppenmiere	Wikipedia: | Wikispecies: | CABI
	Zilte schijnspurrie	Back to the list of neophytes

Report the species

→ Report Spergularia marina to the National Museum of Natural History.

Brief description

Spergularia marina, also called Spergularia salina, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is known as salt sandspurry or lesser sea-spurrey. S. marina is a sprawling annual or sometimes perennial with stems up to 35 cm long. Like other sea-spurrey species, its flowers have white to pink petals, with sepals usually longer than the petals, at 2.5–4 mm. Plants are salt-tolerant, being found by the sea and in saline areas inland as well as in areas along roadsides affected by de-icing salts (Wikipedia contributors 2022).

Status and distribution in Luxembourg

Spergularia marina (L.) Besser was first documented in Luxembourg in 2019, near Garnich (Krippel et al. 2020), Findel and Hoscheid (MNHNL 2000-). Selective investigations have shown that S. marina is well represented in Luxembourg. Even if the lesser sea-spurrey was not recorded by Ehl et al. (2019) during the survey of salt-tolerant vascular plant species along roads in Luxembourg – although known near Arlon in Belgium (Remacle 2015) –, this probably overlooked species must have been present in Luxembourg long before 2019. The sub-cosmopolite S. marina – usually found by the sea and in saline inland areas –, with a salinity index of 9 after Ellenberg (2001), is in expansion in the territory of the ‘Nouvelle Flore’ (Lambinon & Verloove 2015) and adjacent regions in Germany (Hand et al. 2016). In 2021 and 2022 many new locations were found in Luxembourg and Spergularia marina thus can be considered as naturalised in the Grand Duchy, mostly on surfaces affected by de-icing salts along roadsides, where it often grows together with Puccinellia distans, another halophyte. 32 observations of the species have been documented in the Recorder-Lux database between 2019 and 2022.

Risk assessment

ISEIA protocol

C2 (3+1+1+1). First assessed 16 February 2017 by Yves Krippel and Christian Ries.

Worldwide distribution

Bibliography

• CABI, 2022. Spergularia marina. In: Invasive Species Compendium. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. URL: <https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/117280> [accessed 2022-11-14].
• Ehl, S., K. Mildenberger, T. Frankenberg & C. Ries, 2019. Halophytes in roadside habitats: a survey of salt-tolerant vascular plant species along roads in Luxembourg. Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 121: 37-51.
• Ellenberg, H., H. E. Weber, R. Düll, V. Wirth & W. Werner, 2001. Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica XVIII. Goltze-Verlag, Göttingen, 262 pp.
• Hand, R., H. Reichert, W. Bujnoch, U. Kottke, & S. Caspari, 2016. Flora der Region Trier. Band 1 & 2, Verlag Michael Weyand, Trier, 1.634 pp.
• Krippel, Y., T. Helminger & G. Colling, 2020. Notes floristiques. Observations faites au Luxembourg (2018-2019). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 122: 29-55.
• Lambinon, J. & F. Verloove (collab. L. Delvosalle, B. Toussaint, D. Geerinck, I. Hoste, F. van Rossum, B. Cornier, R. Schumacker, A. Vanderpoorten & H. Vannerom), 2015. Nouvelle Flore de la Belgique, du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, du Nord de la France et des Régions voisines. (Ptéridophytes et Spermatophytes), 6e éd., 2e tirage, avec corrections. Jardin botanique national de Belgique, Meise, CXXXIX + 1195 pp.
• MNHNL, 2000-. Portail de données du Musée national d’histoire naturelle. Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg. URL: https://data.mnhn.lu [accédé le 01.04.2022].
• Remacle, A., 2015. L’intérêt botanique des espaces verts autoroutiers: le cas de l’autoroute E411 près d’Arlon (province de Luxembourg, Belgique). Dumortiera 107: 3-21.
• Wikipedia contributors, 2022. ‘Spergularia marina‘, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 April 2021, 21:41 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spergularia_marina> [accessed 2022-09-15]