Pickleweed
Pickleweed (Salicornia rubra) is a fibrous annual in the amaranth (Amaranthaceae) family.
- Free-branching smooth, fleshy stems grow up to 25 cm.
- Leaves are short, fused, scale like bracts.
- Small fleshy spiked flowers appear from the joints of the spikes.
- Bladders of seeds form after flowering.
- The whole plant turns a bright red in late summer and the fall.
- Other common names include red glasswort and red swampfire.
- It is a halophyte, a salt-tolerant plant.
- We spot Salicornia around the drying fringes of ponds and marshes in the grasslands and by open mid-elevation ponds.
- Pickleweed has been used as an edible in some European countries. It was also used in glass-making, as a source for soda ash (glasswort).