It's a very common coastal plant all over the UK and Europe. In appearance, it's quite variable - some of this is innate/genetic, but there is often also a fair bit of variability due to habitat - plants growing right on the exposed shore may be wiry little tufts of tattered leaves, atop gnarled woody rootstocks, or they may be great tangled bushes of little succulent leaves with long stalks.

A few metres inland, amongst grass, dunes or scrub, specimens tend to be larger and fresher in leaf - although even here, there's variability - from great clumps of taller, delicate leaves, to robust rosettes of thick, rubbery ones.

Pictures below: A typical specimen from the exposed shore vs another found in grass just 10 metres inland

Picking Sea beet

In my experience - and I hope it's borne out by the photos above - the plants with leaves best suited for the table are those growing in slightly more sheltered spots a little way away from the shore.

It's tempting, in the sight of all this free food, just to wade in and start tearing up great handfuls of it - but this is likely to lead to disappointment back in the kitchen. These plants have to endure quite punishing conditions - as a result, many of their leaves will be damaged, or may have toughened beyond palatability.

Take your time and select only intact leaves from the younger parts of the plant - this might seem time consuming, but this really is the best time to be applying discernment - the alternative is a lot of - even more time consuming - picking, sorting, trimming and waste back at home.

Leaving the tatty older leaves on the plant is doing it a favour too.

Sea Beet plants are by no means rare treasures, but there's no point doing any more damage to them than is strictly necessary - so take only what you will eat.