Perennial Plant Profiles...

Beta vulgaris maritima, sea beet

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Beta
Species vulgaris maritima
Common Name sea beet
Form herb
Habit clumping
Origin Europe
Light sun
Moisture mesic 
Edible greens


The sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima is a member of the family Amaranthaceae, previously of the Chenopodiaceae.  Here in Sweden the range is restricted to the South and West coasts.

The sea beet is the wild ancestor of common vegetables such as beetroot, sugar beet, and Swiss chard.  It grows up to 1.2 m, and flowers in the summer. Its flowers are hermaphroditic, and wind-pollinated. It requires moist, well-drained soils, and does not tolerate shade. However, it is able to tolerate relatively high levels of sodium in its environment.


Young leaves are eaten raw or cooked. A delicious spinach substitute in the spring, the leaves become less pleasant as the season progresses, developing a distinct bitterness in hot weather. Some people dislike the raw leaves since they can leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Beta vulgaris maritima

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