sea kale

8.7

A coastal plant with thick blue-green leaves and edible shoots

noun
/siː keɪl/

: col marina

The chef recommended using sea kale in the salad for its unique flavor.

Examples

Many people enjoy harvesting sea kale from the wild during the spring.
In coastal areas, sea kale can be found growing naturally among the sand dunes.
They crossed the narrow width of the island and looked down a far more precipitous slope of sand dunes, anchored with beach grass, sea holly, and sea kale.

Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

Crambe maritima

vssea kale

9.9

A coastal plant with large fleshy blue-green leaves and white flowers often eaten as a vegetable

is the common cultivated name for that same plant

sea cole

vssea kale

Archaic

9.9

A plant by the sea with large blue green leaves and small white flowers eaten like a vegetable

is the northern coastal plant more often eaten as a cultivated vegetable

How Edible

kale

43 2.4

sea kale

8.7

Surface Forms

sea kale singular

sea kales plural

Morphology

sea + kale

The meaning is directly compositional: 'sea' (coastal) + 'kale' (a leafy vegetable) yields a type of kale associated with the sea. This follows a regular noun–noun compounding pattern that a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer, so the sense is predictable from the parts.

Etymology

The plant sea kale gets its name from a simple picture: it grows by the sea and its leaves and shoots look and taste like garden kale. So, sea kale means a leafy plant 'from the shore' that people can eat.