Glasswort

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Glasswort

Salicornia is a genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
of succulent, halophyte (salt tolerant)

Halophyte

A halophyte is a plant that naturally grows where it is affected by salinity in the root area or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores....
plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s that grow in salt marshes, on beach

Beach

File:MiamiSouthBeachPanoramaEdit.jpgA beach is a geology landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of Rock , such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, pebbles, or cobble....
es, and among mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline water coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The word is used in at least three senses: most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for which the terms mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are also used, to refer to all trees and...
s. Salicornia species are native to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, South Africa and South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east....
. Common names for the genus include glasswort
Glasswort

Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte plants that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to the United States, Europe, South Africa and South Asia....
, pickleweed
Pickleweed

Pickleweed is a common name used for two unrelated genus of flowering plants:*Batis, family Bataceae*Salicornia, family Amaranthaceae...
, and marsh samphire
Samphire

Samphire is a name given to a number of very different, edible plants, that happen to grow in coastal areas.*Rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in the United Kingdom....
; these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia.

Botanical
The Salicornia species are small, usually less than 30 cm tall, succulent herb

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s with a jointed horizontal main stem and erect lateral branches.

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Botanical

The Salicornia species are small, usually less than 30 cm tall, succulent herb

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s with a jointed horizontal main stem and erect lateral branches. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are small and scale-like and as such the plant may appear leafless. Many species are green, but their foliage turns red in autumn. The hermaphrodite flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are wind pollinated, and the fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is small and succulent and contains a single seed.

Salicornia species can generally tolerate immersion in salt water. They use the c4 pathway

C4 carbon fixation

C4 carbon fixation is one of three biochemical mechanisms, along with C3 carbon fixation and CAM photosynthesis, functioning in land plants to "fix" carbon dioxide for sugar production through photosynthesis....
to take in carbon dioxide from the surrounding atmosphere.

Salicornia species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is an order of insect that includes moths and butterfly. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterfly, skipper , and Hedylidae....
species including the Coleophora
Coleophora

Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae with around 1000 described species. The genus is represented on all continents but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions....
case-bearers C. atriplicis and C. salicorniae (the latter feeds exclusively on Salicornia spp).

Species

Nearly 60 species have been proposed for Salicornia. Some common species are:

American, Virginia or Woody Glasswort, Salicornia virginica
Common Glasswort, Salicornia europea
Slender Glasswort, Salicornia maritima
Dwarf Glasswort, Salicornia bigelovii
Perennial Glasswort, Salicornia perennis (see Sarcocornia
Sarcocornia

Sarcocornia is a genus of succulent halophyte coastal plants....
perennis)
Purple Glasswort, Salicornia ramosissima
Umari Keerai, Salicornia brachiata

Culinary

Salicornia europaea is highly edible, either cooked or raw. In England it is one of several plants known as samphire (see also Rock samphire

Rock samphire

Samphire or rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum, is the sole species of the genus Crithmum. It is an edible wild plant found in coastal regions of mainland Great Britain....
); the term samphire is believed to be a corruption of the French name, herbe de Saint-Pierre, which means "St. Peter's Herb." In the United States the edible species are known as sea beans.

Samphire is usually cooked, either steamed or microwaved

Microwave oven

A microwave oven, or a microwave, is a kitchen appliance that cookings or heats food by dielectric heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other dipole within the food....
, and then coated in butter or olive oil. Due to its high salt content, it must be cooked without any salt added, in plenty of water. It has a hard stringy core, and after cooking, the edible flesh is pulled off from the core. This flesh, after cooking, resembles seaweed in colour, and the flavour and texture are like young spinach stems or asparagus. Samphire is very often used as a suitably maritime accompaniment to fish or seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any aquatic animal that is served as food and eaten by humans. Seafoods include fish and shellfish .The harvesting of seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming....
.

In addition to Salicornia europaea, the seeds of Salicornia bigelovii yield a highly edible oil. Salicornia bigelovii's edibility is compromised somewhat because it contains saponins, which are toxic under certain conditions.

Umari keerai is cooked and eaten or pickled. It is also used as fodder for cattle, sheep and goats. In Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
, it is used to feed donkeys.

Industrial use (historical)

The ashes of glasswort

Glasswort

Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte plants that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to the United States, Europe, South Africa and South Asia....
and saltwort

Saltwort

Saltwort is a common name for several genera of flowering plants, including:*Batis, family Bataceae*Salicornia and Salsola, family Amaranthaceae...
plants and of kelp

Kelp

Kelp are large seaweed plants , belonging to the brown algae and classified in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus. Some species can be very long and form kelp forests....
were long used as a source of soda ash (mainly Sodium carbonate

Sodium carbonate

Sodium carbonate , , is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily efflorescence to form a white powder, the monohydrate....
) for glass

Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
making and soapmaking. The introduction of the LeBlanc process

Leblanc process

The Leblanc process was the industrial process for the production of soda ash used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc....
for industrial production of soda ash superseded the use of plant sources in the first half of the 19th Century.

Umari keerai is used as raw material in paper and board factories.

Industrial use (contemporary)

Because Salicornia bigelovii can be grown using saltwater and its seeds contain high levels of unsaturated oil (30 percent, mostly linoleic acid

Linoleic acid

Linoleic acid is an unsaturated omega-6 fatty acid. It is a colorless liquid. In physiological literature, it is called 18:2. Chemically, linoleic acid is a carboxylic acid with an 18-carbon chain and two cis double bonds; the first double bond is located at the sixth carbon from the omega end....
) and protein (35 percent), it can be used to produce animal feedstuff and biodiesel on coastland where conventional crops cannot be grown. Adding nitrogen-based fertiliser

Fertilizer

Fertilizers are chemical compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either through the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves....
to the seawater appears to increase the rate of growth and the eventual height of the plant, and it has been suggested that the effluent from marine aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms including molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Unlike fishing, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, implies the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions....
(e.g. shrimp farm

Shrimp farm

A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe....
ing) could be used for this purpose.

There are experimental fields of Salicornia in Ras al-Zawr (Saudi Arabia), Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
(Northeast Africa) and Sonora

Sonora

Sonora is one of the 31 States of Mexico and is located in the northwest of the country....
(Northwest Mexico) aimed at the production of biodiesel. The company responsible for the Sonora trials () claims that between 225 and 250 gallons of BQ-9000 biodiesel can be produced per hectare (approximately 2.5 acres) of salicornia, and is promoting a $35 million scheme to create a salicornia farm in Bahia de Kino.