The Ferrybridge area has many unusual plant species, particularly in the green area around the old railway line, but also on the green area on the back of Chesil Beach. The complete list contains many hundreds of species which it would not be possible to present here. A fairly complete list can be found here. Be aware this list was prepared some years ago and there are some notable omissions. On this page a number of the easily found species are described.
The most prominent of the plant species is the spring blooming of thrift (Armeria maritima). In late April the green areas around the Ferrybridge area become a sea of pink for several weeks. A small number of these plants continue blooming right through to early Autumn.
As the thrift dies off a number of other plants come into bloom along the earth banks either side of the road producing an avenue of yellows, whites and pinks.
Also to be seen in the spring is scurvygrass, a small white flower found all round the ferrybridge area. Both common and Danish scurvygrass can be found in the area.
During the summer, plants to look out for on the grassy area on the back of Chesil Beach include hares-foot clover, wild thyme, restharrow, yarrow, kidney vetch, plantains, stonecrop and sea campion. The small pink flowers of common cranesbill can be found from Spring to Autumn.
Visible on the sand either side of the footbridge to the beach by the visitors centre are sea purslane and glasswort. The shoreline between Chesil Beach and the Fleet is lined with a nationally-rare species the shrubby seablite (Suaeda vera). This is a plant of salt marshes and sandflats and can be found the whole length of the Fleet.
Also found along the Fleet shoreline is the sea beet (Beta vulgaris) with its distinctive red stems.
Less common plants are Portland spurge and samphire, both found along the border between the grassy area and the high pebbles and the sea pea which grows through the pebbles. It is also worth looking for the sea bindweed that grows around the lagoon alongside the car park.
Hamm Beach is such a set of varied environments that there are a large number of different plants growing across the area. The commoner ones are covered above but additional plants you may find are sea kale, sea holly and a number of broomrapes.
