Fleshy maritime plant having fleshy stems with rudimentary scalelike leaves and small spikes of minute flowers; formerly used in making glass.
Bushy plant of Old World salt marshes and sea beaches having prickly leaves; burned to produce a crude soda ash.
1 One type of glasswort played a prominent role in the glass industry in England as a source for sodium oxide, or soda.
2 The fleshy leaves at a little distance suggest the form of many plants of brackish marsh and creek edges, and even the glasswort itself.
3 Glassworts as a group have had a long and interesting career outside of food additives.
4 Just on their own, many glassworts are edible, and you might see them on the menu as sea beans or samphire.
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