Glassworts Family:-

"These are curious succulent salt-loving plants, with no obvious beauty except when they go red. They are mostly annuals and vary from prostrate to 9 inches high, from slender unbranched stems to thick lush little bushes. The fat shining jointedcylindrical stems bear pairs fo branches and opposite leaves, which are fused in pairs and reduced to fleshy sheaths. Their flowers, minute, petalless and visible chiefly as 1-2 stamens, are sunk in the stems at thses junctions, 1-3 together, in spikes at the end of the branches; seeds, minute, hairy. The various forms of Glasswort are not clearly demarcated, and hybrids are probably frequent, but those summarised below may be reasonably distinct." from Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R. Fitter assisted by Francis Rose - ISBN 0 00 219363 9 - Eleventh Impression 1978.

Glassworts Family plant table with its Common Name - Botanical Name. Flowering Months Range. Habitat with link to that Gentian to Goosefoot Wild Flower Families Gallery:-

Common Name

Botanical Name

Flowering Months

Habitat

Bushy Glasswort

(styv glasört in Sweden, langarige zeekraal in Dutch, Long-spiked Glasswort in UK)

Salicornia dolichostachya

August-September

An annual of open mud and muddy sand on intertidal flats and in the lowest parts of saltmarshes, and occasionally in the mid-marsh along the banks of saltmarsh creeks and runnels. Lowland.

Flower

Flowers

Foliage from Motney Hill in Kent

Form from Motney Hill

Fragile Glasswort

(eenbloemige zeekraal in Dutch, One-flowered Glasswort in UK)

Salicornia pusilla

August-September

An annual restricted to the uppermost parts of saltmarshes, growing on firm mud or sand in salt-pans and on the drift-line; also behind sea-walls in areas subject to saltwater seepage and kept open by vehicles or livestock. Lowland.

Glasswort

(Gemeiner Queller in Germany, glasört in Sweden, kortarige zeekraal in Dutch, Soliród zielny in Poland, Common Glasswort in UK)

Salicornia europaea

August-September

An annual found at all levels of sandy or muddy saltmarshes, in saltmarsh-sand dune transitions and wet, tidally inundated dune-slacks; also, more rarely, in relict saltmarsh and other open saline areas behind sea-walls. Halliday (1997) notes that in Cumbria S. europaea is probably the only Salicornia species able to persist on grazed marshes. Lowland.

Flowers from Sharps Green

Flowers from Sharps Green

Foliage from Lower Rainham in Kent

Form from Motney Hill in Kent

Perennial Glasswort

Salicornia perennis

(Salicornia ambigua, 
Arthrocnemum perenne, Sarcocornia perennis)

August-September

A woody perennial subshrub of saltmarshes, especially in bare or sparsely vegetated areas on firm, muddy sand and gravel. S. perennis occurs on eroding lower parts of saltmarshes, at higher elevations on saltmarsh drift-lines and on shell and shingle banks; sometimes also on bare ground behind sea-walls. Lowland.

Flower

Flowers

Foliage from Sharps Green in Kent in July

Form from Sharps Green in July

Seablite Glasswort

(Same as Twiggy Glasswort below)

Salicornia prostrata

(and 6 synonyms, Salicornia maritima, Salicornia ramosissima)

August-September

Saltmarshes (on firmer mud in Southern England). Nitrogen and phosphorus resortion in a salt marsh in northern Turkey.

Twiggy Glasswort

(Prostrate Glasswort, Purple Glasswort)

Salicornia ramosissima

August-September

This morphologically highly variable annual is usually found in the middle and upper zones of saltmarshes, in closed Puccinellia maritima swards, salt-pans, creeks and drift-lines. It also occurs on firm sand and muddy shingle, and behind sea-walls in open areas of brackish grazing marsh. Ball & Tutin (1959) note that this species occurs `in all parts of saltmarshes except the lower mud-flats`. Lowland

Flower

Flowers from Shellness in August

Foliage from Shellness in August

Form from Shellness in August

Salicornia and Sarcocornia are very difficult to tell apart as this article explains.

Further help is given in A Guide to Pigweeds, Goosefoots, Oraches and their relatives in Hampshire.