Taste the air. Apium prostratum is wild relative of cultivated celery. Plant that tastes like coast. Grows on beaches and salt marshes throughout New Zealand. Leaves and stems have strong celery flavour. Can be used in cooking, soups and salads. More strongly flavoured than cultivated celery. Should be used sparingly. Important green vegetable for early Māori and European settlers. Plant that fed people who lived by sea. Plant has finely divided, fern-like leaves. Bright green and glossy. Stems are hollow and ribbed. Similar to cultivated celery but thinner and more delicate. Small, white flowers arranged in compound umbels. Characteristic of carrot family. Flowers in summer. Producing seeds dispersed by wind and water. Native celery grows in saline or brackish conditions that would kill most plants. Has specialised adaptations for living in coastal zone. Thick, waxy leaves reduce water loss. Salt glands excrete excess salt. Can tolerate occasional inundation by seawater. Cannot survive permanent submersion. Species is important component of coastal ecosystems. Stabilises sand dunes and salt marshes. Preventing erosion. Roots bind soil. Foliage provides shelter for small animals. To find native celery is to walk high tide line on sandy beach. Beach is windy. Native celery grows, fern-like and glossy. Strong celery smell in air. Leaf is picked and tasted. Flavour is strong, salt-tinged. Plant does not know it fed people. Does not know it holds dune together. It just wants to grow where land meets water. That is where it belongs. No one told it otherwise.