Salicornia

Morphological Summary

Genus of halophytic succulent plants in the family Amaranthaceae (subfamily Salicornioideae). Commonly known as glassworts or samphire, they are herbaceous or suffrutescent plants with jointed, fleshy stems ranging from green to red-purple, and leaves reduced to tiny scales fused to the stem and invisible to the naked eye. This peculiar modular design allows them to colonise salt marshes, coastal salt pans and saline deserts where no other vascular plant thrives. They have an extraordinary tolerance to salinity (up to 6% NaCl), accumulate salt in their succulent tissues and excrete it to regulate osmotic pressure. Several species are edible and marketed as "sea asparagus" in gourmet outlets. Some South American species (S. peruviana, S. corticosa) grow in the salt flats of the Atacama Desert, being among the few vascular plants that survive in those extreme environments.