Salicornia rubra
Salicornia
red glasswort, red glasswort saltwort, red pickleweed, red saltwort, red swampfire, Rocky Mountain glasswort
glasswort, pickleweed, saltwort, samphire
usually erect, green with red or purple at base and apex of segments and around flowers, often becoming completely red in fruit, simple or with primary and secondary branches, more elaborately branched if damaged, (1–)5–25 cm, ultimate branches usually short;
leaf and bract apices obtuse to subacute, not mucronate.
prostrate to erect, simple to many-branched, apparently jointed and fleshy when young, becoming not jointed and somewhat woody with age.
opposite, connate basally, sessile, decurrent portions forming fleshy segments enclosing stem, fleshy;
blade reduced to fleshy scales, margins entire, narrow, scarious.
spikes, terminal on each stem, apparently jointed, each joint (fertile segment) consisting of 2 axillary, opposite, usually 3-flowered cymes embedded in and adherent to fleshy tissue of distal internode;
flowers in each cyme arranged in triangle, the 2 lateral flowers meeting beneath central flower, flowers separated by persistent flaps of internodal tissue.
weakly torulose, 0.5–3(–5) cm, with 4–10(–19) fertile segments;
bracts covering only base of cymes.
usually bisexual, ± radially symmetric;
perianth segments persistent in fruit, usually 3, connate except for extreme tips, fleshy;
stamens (0–)1–2;
styles 2.
utriclelike;
pericarp membranous.
vertical, ellipsoid;
seed coat yellowish brown, thin, membranous, hairy;
perisperm absent.
segments (2d–4th in main spikes) 2.1–4.4 × 1.8–3.2 mm, about as long as wide or slightly longer, widest distally, margins (0.1–)0.2–0.3(–0.4) mm wide, scarious.
flowers usually semicircular distally, 1.1–2.2 × 1–1.7 mm, about as long as wide or a little longer, usually not or scarcely larger than lateral flowers;
anthers commonly not exserted, (0.2–)0.3–0.4 mm, usually dehiscing within flowers.
= 9.
= 18.
Salicornia rubra
Salicornia
Salicornia rubra has been introduced into Quebec and Michigan. Populations of S. rubra from Hudson Bay, growing above mean high water in saltmarshes and estuaries in the vicinity of Churchill, Manitoba, have been described as a distinct species, S. borealis, but they are now known from several localities in N. Ontario and Yukon. They are on average smaller in all their parts than typical S. rubra, but they fall within the lower limits of the range of variation for that species. These populations possess one apparently unique feature in that many of the plants branch at the cotyledonary node, a characteristic not known from other North American populations of Salicornia.
Salicornia rubra is very similar to the Eurasian species S. prostrata Pallas, which occurs in very similar inland habitats. No direct comparison of these two species has been possible and it is not at all clear how they differ from each other.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species ca. 10 (4 in the flora).
Salicornia is occasionally utilized as a vegetable in Europe, especially the tetraploid species. The seeds are rich in oils and experimental trials have been undertaken in the southwestern United States to harvest tetraploid species, especially S. bigelovii, on a large scale as a commercial source of vegetable oils.
Because of the succulence of the plants and the highly reduced morphology, it has been difficult to develop a satisfactory taxonomy of the genus. Dried specimens often cannot be determined with certainty, and are of little use in taxonomic studies owing to the loss of characteristics on drying. Salicornia is also difficult to cultivate satisfactorily because the plants appear to require a limited amount of salt and, the tetraploids in particular, occasional submersion in water, although they do not grow well in permanently waterlogged soils.
R. L. Jefferies and L. D. Gottlieb (1982) and S. L. Wolff and R. L. Jefferies (1987, 1987b), using isozyme data, have shown that the diploid taxa are largely homozygous inbreeding lines. There is for the most part good correlation between morphological and isozyme data, but it must be emphasized that the geographical coverage and the number of populations studied are limited.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaf and bract apices acute and sharply mucronate; bracts almost obscuring cymes | S. bigelovii |
1. Leaf and bract apices obtuse to subacute, not mucronate; bracts covering only bases of cymes | → 2 |
2. Fertile segments ± cylindric; anthers all exserted, dehiscing after exsertion | S. depressa |
2. Fertile segments widest distally; anthers commonly not exserted, mostly dehiscing within flower | → 3 |
3. Anthers (0.1-)0.2-0.3 mm; coastal | S. maritima |
3. Anthers (0.2-)0.3-0.4 mm; inland | S. rubra |
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