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 glassworts include halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems, such as mangrove swamps, never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.
The common name "glasswort" came into use in the 16th century to describe plants growing in England whose ashes could be used for making soda-based (as opposed to potash-based) glass.[1][2]
- ^ "Definition of glasswort," Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 1989). Definition retrieved from online edition (subscription required) July 20, 2007.
- ^ Turner, William (1995). A New Herball: Parts II and III, edited by George T. L. Chapman, Frank McCombie, and Anne U. Wesencraft (Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-44549-8). This book contains a facsimile of Turner's original 1562 and 1568 volumes, along with an edited transcript. The transcript of Turner's article on Kali (p. 673) includes the sentence "Kali, as I do remember, hath no name in English, and although it be very plenteous in England, yet I never could meet with any man that knew it. But lest this herb should be without a name, it may be called Saltwurt, because it is salt in taste, and Salalkali is made thereof. It may also be called Glas Wede, because the ashes of it serve to make glass."