Pollicipes pollicipes - Gooseneck Barnacle by Stella M. Turk MBE

Rick Stein gives recipes
For Pollicipes pollicipes!
An extremely rare treat
That rich gourmets eat
The larvae float freely
Then settle wholly
On rock, shell or stone
They keep as their own.
As they like it rough
One has to be tough
To go where they grow
From ‘The Gib’ to ‘Malo’.

Stella M Turk MBE

23rd March 2008

Stellas notes:

The Land’s End area is the north European limit for the Gooseneck Barnacle but it is so rare here that only six specimens are known: 1880 (2 found by Henry Groves and preserved in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington; 1983-1986 (1 recorded yearly over four years by Raymond Dennis) and 2007 (3 discovered by Keith Hiscock). *The name rolls of the tongue if you pronounce it as pol-is-ip ees. It has been known as Mitella pollicipes and Pollicipes cornucopia.

 

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