Armeria maritima - Thrift, or Sea Pink - (Plumbaginaceae)

This must be one of the most familiar of spring and early summer flowers to be found on the cliff-tops of the UK and Europe.

Thrift on a West Wales coastal cliff

If you walk along coastal paths you will see plenty of these striking wild flowers. They grow on the grassy slopes and in rock crevices and on ledges - in good places they form vast dense mats of bright pink. They also grow in salt marshes and occasionally on mountains further inland.

Sea pinks, or thrift

Although they are at their best from late spring to mid summer, but you will see thrift in bloom from April until October. The sea pinks in this picture were photographed near the Teifi Estuary.