Cleveland Coast Wildflowers

This is a stretch of grassland and dune running parallel with the coast road. It starts at the end of Granville Terrace near Zetland Park and ends at Cliff House, Marske. The sand dunes here have stabilized through the roots of the plants growing on them binding the sand tightly and are out of reach from any sea damage or change by winter storms. Some areas of the plant community can tolerate being regularly mown and they thrive near the road but the rest is uncut and the type of plants which grow changes depending on the fertility of the soil. The nationally scarce purple milk-vetch grows here as does a plant which originates in China but was used in the Nineteenth Century as a coastal hedging plant – the Duke of Argyll’s Teaplant.