''Salicornia'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
succulent
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...
,
halophytic
A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. ...
(salt tolerant)
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s in the family
Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...
that grow in
salt marsh
A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...
es, on beaches, and among
mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
s. ''Salicornia'' species are native to North America, Europe, Central Asia, and southern Africa. Common names for the genus include
glasswort
The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus ''Salicornia'', but today the glass ...
,
pickleweed Pickleweed is a common name used for two unrelated genera of flowering plants:
*'' Batis'', family Bataceae
*''Salicornia
''Salicornia'' is a genus of succulent, halophytic (salt tolerant) flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that gro ...
, picklegrass, and marsh
samphire
Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies.
*Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...
; these common names are also used for some species not in ''Salicornia''. To French speakers in
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
, they are known colloquially as ''titines de souris'' ('mouse tits'). The main European species is often eaten, called marsh samphire in Britain, and the main North American species is occasionally sold in grocery stores or appears on restaurant menus as sea beans, samphire greens or sea asparagus.
Description
![Salicornia maritima](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Salicornia_maritima.jpg)
The ''Salicornia'' species are small annual herbs. They grow prostrate to erect, their simple or branched stems are succulent, hairless, and appear to be jointed. The opposite
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are strongly reduced to small fleshy scales with a narrow dry margin, hairless, unstalked and united at the base, thus enclosing and forming a succulent sheath around the stem, which gives it the appearance of being composed of jointed segments.
[Ball, Peter W. (2004).]
''Salicornia'' L.
," in ''Flora of North America: North of Mexic
Volume 4: Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1
'', Editorial Committee of the ''Flora of North America'' (Oxford University Press, 2004). . Online version retrieved August 10, 2016. Many species are green, but their foliage turns red in autumn. Older stems may be somewhat woody basally.
All stems terminate in spike-like apparently jointed
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
s. Each joint consists of two opposite minute bracts with an (1-) 3-flowered
cyme tightly embedded in cavities of the main axis and partly hidden by the bracts. The flowers are arranged in a triangle, both lateral flowers beneath the central flower. The hermaphrodite
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
s are more or less radially symmetric, with a
perianth
The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...
of three fleshy
tepal
A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s united nearly to the apex. There are 1–2
stamen
The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...
s and an ovary with two
stigmas.
The perianth is persistent in fruit. The fruit wall (pericarp) is membranous. The vertical seed is ellipsoid, with yellowish brown, membranous, hairy seed coat. The seed contains no
perisperm
In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...
(feeding tissue).
Like most members of the subfamily
Salicornioideae
The Salicornioideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae (''sensu lato'', including the Chenopodiaceae). Important characters are succulent, often articulated stems, strongly reduced leaves, and flowers aggregated in thick, ...
, ''Salicornia'' species use the
C3 carbon fixation pathway to take in carbon dioxide from the surrounding atmosphere.
Taxonomy
![Salicornia flowers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Salicornia_flowers.JPG)
The genus ''Salicornia'' was
first described in 1753 by
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
. ''
Salicornia europaea
''Salicornia europaea'', known as common glasswort or just glasswort, is a halophytic annual dicot flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. Glasswort is a succulent herb also known as ‘Pickle weed’ or ‘ Marsh samphire’. As a succule ...
'' was selected as the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
.
The genus probably originated during the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
in the region between the
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...
and Central Asia. Evolving from within the perennial and frost-sensitive former genus ''Sarcocornia'' (now shown to be
paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
),
[ the annual, strongly inbreeding and frost-tolerant ''Salicornia'' diversified during the late ]Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...](_blank)
. By events of intercontinental dispersals, they reached southern Africa twice and North America at least three times. Two tetraploid lineages expanded rapidly, with the ability to colonize lower belts of the salt marsh
A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...
es than their diploid relatives. Inbreeding and geographical isolation led to a large number of reproductive isolated species that are only weakly differentiated.
The taxonomic classification of this genus is extremely difficult (with one paper calling it a "taxonomic nightmare"). The determination of species seems almost impossible for non-specialists. The reasons for these difficulties are the reduced habit with weak morphological differentiation and high phenotypic variability. As the succulent plants lose their characteristics while drying, herbarium specimens often cannot be determined with certainty and are less suited for taxonomic studies.
Molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
studies have regularly revised the circumscription
Circumscription may refer to:
*Circumscribed circle
* Circumscription (logic)
*Circumscription (taxonomy)
*Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...
of the genus. It was considered distinct from ''Sarcocornia'' in 2007 and 2012 studies. A 2017 study resulted in ''Sarcocornia'' being sunk into ''Salicornia'', substantially increasing the size of the genus, which was divided into four subgenera.
Species
, Plants of the World Online
Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...
accepted the following species:
*'' Salicornia alpini'' Lag.
*'' Salicornia ambigua'' Michx.
*'' Salicornia andina'' Phil.
*''Salicornia bigelovii
''Salicornia bigelovii'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names dwarf saltwort and dwarf glasswort. It is native to coastal areas of the eastern and southern United States, Belize, and coastal Mexico ...
'' Torr.
*'' Salicornia blackiana'' Ulbr.
*'' Salicornia brachiata'' Roxb.
*'' Salicornia capensis'' (Moss) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia crassispica'' G.L.Chu
*'' Salicornia cuscoensis'' Gutte & G.K.Müll. ex Freitag, M.Á.Alonso & M.B.Crespo
*'' Salicornia decumbens'' (Toelken) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia decussata'' (S.Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia disarticulata'' Moss
*'' Salicornia dunensis'' (Moss ex Adamson) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia erectispica'' G.L.Chu
*''Salicornia europaea
''Salicornia europaea'', known as common glasswort or just glasswort, is a halophytic annual dicot flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. Glasswort is a succulent herb also known as ‘Pickle weed’ or ‘ Marsh samphire’. As a succule ...
'' L.
*''Salicornia fruticosa
''Salicornia fruticosa'', synonym ''Sarcocornia fruticosa'', is a species of glasswort in the family Amaranthaceae (pigweeds). It is native to southern Europe, north Africa, Western Asia and Yemen. It is a halophyte
A halophyte is a salt-to ...
'' (L.) L.
*'' Salicornia globosa'' (Paul G.Wilson) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia helmutii'' Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia hispanica'' (Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia lagascae'' (Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia littorea'' (Moss) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia magellanica'' Phil.
*'' Salicornia maritima'' S.L.Wolff & Jefferies
* ''Salicornia'' × ''marshallii'' (Lambinon & Vanderp.) Stace
*''Salicornia meyeriana
''Salicornia'' is a genus of succulent, halophytic (salt tolerant) flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. ''Salicornia'' species are native to North America, Europe, Central Asia, ...
'' Moss
*''Salicornia mossambicensis
''Salicornia'' is a genus of succulent, halophytic (salt tolerant) flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. ''Salicornia'' species are native to North America, Europe, Central Asia, ...
'' (Brenan) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia mossiana'' (Toelken) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia natalensis'' Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb.
*''Salicornia neei
''Salicornia neei'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae, native to Venezuela, the Galápagos, mainland Ecuador to South Brazil and Southern South America. It was first described in 1817.
References
Salicornia, ne ...
'' Lag.
*'' Salicornia nitens'' P.W.Ball & Tutin
*'' Salicornia obclavata'' (Yaprak) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia obscura'' P.W.Ball & Tutin
*'' Salicornia pachystachya'' Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb.
*'' Salicornia pacifica'' Standl.
*'' Salicornia perennans'' Willd.
*''Salicornia perennis
''Salicornia perennis'', synonym ''Sarcocornia perennis'', otherwise known as perennial glasswort, is a species of halophytic perennial plant within the family Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the a ...
'' Mill.
*'' Salicornia perrieri'' A.Chev.
*'' Salicornia persica'' Akhani
*'' Salicornia perspolitana'' Akhani
*'' Salicornia praecox'' A.Chev.
*'' Salicornia procumbens'' Sm.
*'' Salicornia pruinosa'' (Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia pulvinata'' R.E.Fr.
*'' Salicornia quinqueflora'' Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb.
*'' Salicornia rubra'' A.Nelson
*'' Salicornia senegalensis'' A.Chev.
*'' Salicornia sinus-persica'' Akhani
*'' Salicornia tegetaria'' (S.Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia terminalis'' (Toelken) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
*'' Salicornia uniflora'' Toelken
*'' Salicornia utahensis'' Tidestr.
*''Salicornia virginica
''Salicornia virginica'' (American glasswort, pickleweed) is a halophytic
A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as ...
'' L.
*'' Salicornia xerophila'' (Toelken) Piirainen & G.Kadereit
Distribution and habitat
The species of ''Salicornia'' are widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
and in southern Africa, ranging from the subtropics
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...
to subarctic
The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...
regions. There is one species present in New Zealand but the genus is absent from Australia and South America.
They grow in coastal salt marshes and in inland salty habitats like shores of salt lakes. ''Salicornia'' species are halophyte
A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. Th ...
s and can generally tolerate immersion in salt water (hygrohalophytes).
Ecology
''Salicornia'' species are used as food plants by the larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...
species, including the ''Coleophora
''Coleophora'' is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions. Many authors ...
'' case-bearers ''C. atriplicis'' and ''C. salicorniae''; the latter feeds exclusively on ''Salicornia'' spp.
Uses
Culinary
''S. europaea'' is edible, either cooked or raw,["Salicornia"](_blank)
, page of th
''Plants for a Future'' website
. Retrieved July 14, 2007. as are '' S. rubra'' and ''S. depressa''. In England, ''S. europaea'' is one of several plants known as ''samphire'' (including rock samphire
''Crithmum'' is a monospecific genus of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, with the sole species ''Crithmum maritimum'', known as rock samphire, sea fennel or samphire. The name "samphire" is also used for several other unrela ...
); the term samphire is believed to be a corruption of the French name, '' erbe deSaint-Pierre'', which means "St. Peter's herb".
In Hawaii, where it is known as 'sea asparagus', it is often blanched and used as a topping for salads or accompaniment for fish.
In addition to ''S. europaea'', the seeds of '' S. bigelovii'' yield an edible oil. ''S. bigelovii'''s edibility is compromised somewhat because it contains saponins
Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...
, 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.[''Salicornia, oil-yielding plant for coastal belts'', The Hindu](_blank)
/ref> In Kalpitiya
Kalpitiya (, ) is a coastal town located in western region of, Puttalam District. The Kalpitiya peninsula consists of a total fourteen islands. It is developing as a tourist destination.
Etymology
Scholars identify the Sinhalese name "Kalapi ...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, it is used to feed donkeys.
On the east coast of Canada, the plant is known as 'samphire greens' and is a local delicacy. In southeast Alaska, it is known as beach asparagus. In Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
, Canada, they are known as crow's foot greens. In British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, they are known as sea asparagus. In the United States, they are known as 'sea beans' when used for culinary purposes. Other names include sea green bean, sea pickle, and marsh samphire.
In India, researchers at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute
Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (formerly Central Salt Research Institute) is a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. The institute was inaugurated by Jawahar Lal Nehru on ...
developed a process to yield culinary salt from ''S. brachiata.'' The resulting product is known as ''vegetable salt'' and sold under the brand name Saloni.
Dehydrated, pulverized ''Salicornia'' is sold under the brand name "Green Salt" as a salt substitute
A salt substitute, also known as low-sodium salt, is a low-sodium alternative to edible salt (table salt) marketed to circumvent the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease associated with a high intake of sodium chloride while main ...
claimed to be as salty in taste as table salt, but with less sodium.
Pharmacological research
In South Korea, Phyto Corporation has developed a technology of extracting low-sodium salt from ''S. europaea'', a salt-accumulating plant. The company claims that the naturally derived plant salt is effective in treating high blood pressure
Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...
and fatty liver disease
Fatty liver disease (FLD), also known as hepatic steatosis, is a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver. Often there are no or few symptoms. Occasionally there may be tiredness or pain in the upper right side of the abdomen. Complica ...
by reducing sodium intake. The company has also developed a desalted ''Salicornia'' powder containing antioxidative and antithrombus polyphenol
Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of ...
s, claimed to be effective in treating obesity
Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...
and arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of Artery, arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis ...
, as well as providing a means to help resolve global food shortages.
Environmental uses
Pickleweed Pickleweed is a common name used for two unrelated genera of flowering plants:
*'' Batis'', family Bataceae
*''Salicornia
''Salicornia'' is a genus of succulent, halophytic (salt tolerant) flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that gro ...
is used in phytoextraction Phytoextraction is a subprocess of phytoremediation in which plants remove dangerous elements or compounds from soil or water, most usually heavy metals, metals that have a high density and may be toxic to organisms even at relatively low concentra ...
. It is highly effective at removing selenium
Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...
from soil, which is absorbed by the plant and then released into the atmosphere to be dispersed by prevailing winds. Pickleweed (''S. bigelovii'') has been found to have average volatilization
Volatilization is the process whereby a dissolved sample is vaporised. In atomic spectroscopy this is usually a two-step process. The analyte is turned into small droplets in a nebuliser which are entrained in a gas flow which is in turn volatilis ...
rates 10–100 times higher than other species.
Industrial use
Historical
The ashes of glasswort
The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus ''Salicornia'', but today the glass ...
and saltwort Saltwort is a common name for various genera of flowering plants that thrive in salty environments, typically in coastal salt marshes and seashores, including:
:*''Salsola'' and related genera within subfamily ''Salsoloideae''
:*''Salicornia''
:*'' ...
plants and of kelp
Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms.
Kelp grows in "underwat ...
were long used as a source of soda ash (mainly sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...
) for glassmaking and soapmaking. The introduction of the LeBlanc process 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.
Contemporary
Because ''S. bigelovii'' can be grown using saltwater and its seeds contain high levels of unsaturated oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
(30 wt. %, mostly linoleic acid
Linoleic acid (LA) is an organic compound with the formula COOH(CH2)7CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)4CH3. Both alkene groups are cis-trans isomerism, ''cis''. It is a fatty acid sometimes denoted 18:2 (n-6) or 18:2 ''cis''-9,12. A linoleate is a salt (chem ...
) and protein (35 wt. %), it can be used to produce animal feedstuff and as a biofuel feedstock on coastal land where conventional crops cannot be grown. Adding nitrogen-based fertiliser
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
to the seawater appears to increase the rate of growth and the eventual height of the plant, and the effluent from marine aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
(e.g. shrimp farm
Shrimp farming is an aquaculture business that exists in either a marine or freshwater environment, producing shrimp or prawns (crustaceans of the groups Caridea or Dendrobranchiata) for human consumption.
Marine
Commercial marine shrimp farm ...
ing) is a suggested use for this purpose.
Experimental fields of ''Salicornia'' have been planted in Ras al-Zawr (Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
), Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
(northeast Africa) and Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
(northwest Mexico) aimed at the production of biodiesel
Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...
. The company responsible for the Sonora trials
Global Seawater
claims between 225 and 250 gallon
The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:
*the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austr ...
s 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.
Stems and root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
s of ''S. brachiata'' plants have a high cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall ...
content (ca. 30 wt. %), whereas tender stem tips exhibit a low cellulose content (9.2 wt. %). ''S. brachiata'' revealed the dominance of rhamnose, arabinose, mannose
Mannose is a sugar monomer of the aldohexose series of carbohydrates. It is a C-2 epimer of glucose. Mannose is important in human metabolism, especially in the glycosylation of certain proteins. Several congenital disorders of glycosylation ...
, galactose
Galactose (, '' galacto-'' + '' -ose'', "milk sugar"), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epimer of glucose. A galactose molec ...
, and glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...
, with meager presence of ribose
Ribose is a simple sugar and carbohydrate with molecular formula C5H10O5 and the linear-form composition H−(C=O)−(CHOH)4−H. The naturally-occurring form, , is a component of the ribonucleotides from which RNA is built, and so this compo ...
and xylose
Xylose ( grc, ξύλον, , "wood") is a sugar first isolated from wood, and named for it. Xylose is classified as a monosaccharide of the aldopentose type, which means that it contains five carbon atoms and includes an aldehyde functional g ...
in their structural polysaccharide
Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with wa ...
.
See also
* Arid Forest Research Institute
Arid Forest Research Institute (AFRI) is a research institute situated in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The institute conducts scientific research in forestry in order to provide technologies to increase the vegetative cover and to conserve biod ...
* Batis
References
External links
*
*
BBC Gardener's Question Time
- where there is apparently some confusion between the glasswort
The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus ''Salicornia'', but today the glass ...
(marsh samphire
Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies.
*Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...
, found in Suffolk) and the rock samphire
''Crithmum'' is a monospecific genus of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, with the sole species ''Crithmum maritimum'', known as rock samphire, sea fennel or samphire. The name "samphire" is also used for several other unrela ...
(found in Dorset).
BBC Good Food Channel
- recipes for both marsh samphire
Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies.
*Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...
and rock samphire
''Crithmum'' is a monospecific genus of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, with the sole species ''Crithmum maritimum'', known as rock samphire, sea fennel or samphire. The name "samphire" is also used for several other unrela ...
.
Biff Vernon
discusses the common confusion between marsh samphire and rock samphire, and reproduces a poem on the subject by William Logan.
Robert Freedman
Reforma journal
small article about experimental biodiesel fields in Sonora, Mexico
running a seawater farm in Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
with Salicornia to produce oil, food and store carbon dioxide
{{Taxonbar, from=Q159525
Halophytes
Salt marsh plants
Amaranthaceae genera
Barilla plants