General: Perennial herb from a branching rhizome; matted; stems prostrate, freely branched, up to 1 m long.
Leaves: Stem leaves reduced to opposite, scalelike, fused bracts; lower scales slightly spreading, obtuse to rounded.
Flowers: Inflorescence of fleshy spikes, the flowers sunken in depressions of the joints just above the axils and opposite fused bracts, the joints of the spike mostly 0.5-2.5 mm long and about as thick as the spikes; flowers in groups of 3, central flowers in each cluster barely exceeding the lateral ones; spikes 1-4 cm long.
Fruits: Thin, papery-walled, membranous bladders enclosed by spongy flower scales; seeds 1 per bladder, hairy.
Refer to the treatment in Flora North America for a key to glassworts, and further descriptive information.
Habitat / Range
Wet salt marshes and beaches in the lowland zone; common along the coast in BC; N to SE AK and S to CA and MX, also along the Atlantic and Gulf of MX coasts.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
