Salicornia
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 Salicornia europaea
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Salicornia is a genus of succulent, salt tolerant plants that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to the United States, Europe and South Asia. Common names for the genus include glasswort, pickleweed, and marsh samphire; these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia.[1]
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[edit] Botanical
The Salicornia species are small, usually less than 30 cm tall, succulent herbs with a jointed horizontal main stem and erect lateral branches. The leaves 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 flowers are wind pollinated, and the fruit is small and succulent and contains a single seed.[2]
Salicornia species can generally tolerate immersion in salt water. They use the c4 pathway to take in carbon dioxide from the surrounding atmosphere.
Salicornia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Coleophora case-bearers C. atriplicis and C. salicorniae (the latter feeds exclusively on Salicornia spp).
[edit] Species
Nearly 60 species have been proposed for Salicornia.[3] 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 perennis)
- Purple Glasswort, Salicornia ramosissima
- Umari Keerai, Salicornia brachiata
[edit] Culinary
Salicornia europaea is highly edible, either cooked or raw.[4] In England it is one of several plants known as samphire (see also Rock samphire); the term samphire is believed to be a corruption of the French name, herbe de Saint-Pierre, which means "St. Peter's Herb."[5] In the United States the edible species are known as sea beans.[6]
Samphire is usually cooked, either steamed or microwaved, and then coated in butter. After cooking, it resembles seaweed in colour, and the flavour and texture are like young spinach stems or asparagus, and despite its texture when raw, after cooking is not at all stringy or tough. Samphire is very often used as a suitably maritime accompaniment to fish or seafood.
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.[4]
Umari keerai is cooked and eaten or pickled. It is also used as fodder for cattle, sheep and goats.[7] In Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka, it is used to feed donkeys.
[edit] Industrial use (historical)
The ashes of glasswort and saltwort plants and of kelp were long used as a source of soda ash (mainly Sodium carbonate) 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. [7]
[edit] Industrial use (actual)
- See also: biodiesel
There are experimental fields of Salicornia in Eritrea, Africa and Sonora, Mexico aimed at the production of biodiesel. The Arizona company Global Seawater currently explores the economic feasibility in a 800 acre field at the Sonora desert.
[edit] Sources
- ^ Salicornia, Integrated Taxonomic Information System, serial number 20646.
- ^ Ball, Peter W. (2004). "Salicornia L.," in Flora of North America: North of Mexico Volume 4: Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1, Editorial Committee of the Flora of North America (Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 978-0195173895. Online versions retrieved July 14, 2007.
- ^ Global Biodiversity Information Facility (2007). "Salicornia" webpage retrieved July 14, 2007.
- ^ a b "Salicornia", page of the Plants for a Future website. Retrieved July 14, 2007.
- ^ Davidson, Alan (2002). The Penguin Companion To Food (Penguin), p. 828. ISBN 978-0142001639.
- ^ McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Completely Revised and Updated (Scribner, New York), p. 317. ISBN 978-0684800011.
- ^ a b Salicornia, oil-yielding plant for coastal belts, The Hindu
BBC Gardener's Question Time - where there is apparently some confusion between the glasswort (marsh samphire, found in Suffolk) and the rock samphire (found in Dorset).
Biff Vernon discusses the common confusion between marsh samphire and rock samphire, and reproduces a poem on the subject by William Logan.
Reforma journal small article about experimental biodiesel fields in Sonora, Mexico
Lists 'Famine Foods', including Umari Keerai (Salicornia brachiata).
