Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Salicornia, growing in salt marshes and having fleshy stems and rudimentary, scalelike leaves. Also called samphire.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant of the chenopodiaceous genus Salicornia, succulent saline plants with leafless jointed stems and containing a large proportion of soda. Great quantities of the ashes of these and allied plants were formerly used, under the name of barilla, in the manufacture of glass and soap. Also called
marsh-samphire . - n. About 6 species of glasswort (Salicornia) are now said to be found in North America, inhabiting mainly the salt-marshes of the coast, but sometimes (the same or different species) growing on saline ground inland. S. herbacea, the slender or jointed glasswort or marsh-samphire (also called pickle-plant), together with S. Bigelovii, turns a vivid red in autumn, becoming very showy on the Atlantic coast, while S. ambigua, the woody glasswort (also called pickle-weed), presents a diversity of brilliant color jn the Pacific salt-marshes.
Wiktionary
- n. The plant of the genus Salicornia, once burned to produce the ash used to make soda glass.
- n. Any of the edible plants called samphire.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A seashore plant of the Spinach family (Salicornia herbacea), with succulent jointed stems; also, a prickly plant of the same family (Salsola Kali), both formerly burned for the sake of the ashes, which yield soda for making glass and soap.
WordNet 3.0
- n. bushy plant of Old World salt marshes and sea beaches having prickly leaves; burned to produce a crude soda ash
- n. fleshy maritime plant having fleshy stems with rudimentary scalelike leaves and small spikes of minute flowers; formerly used in making glass
Etymologies
- glass + wort (Wiktionary)
- From its former use in making glass. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The higher zones support halophytes such as glasswort Salicornia ramossissima with seablite Suaeda sp. and Arthrocnemum perenne.”
“He serves short ribs, potatoes, fried bone marrow, corn puree and pickled sea beans glasswort.”
The Washington Post: Top Chef All Stars Ep. 12: A Final Five!
“Salt marshes are the most prevalent types of tidal marshes and are characterized by salttolerant plants such as smooth cordgrass, saltgrass, and glasswort.”
“Crommet Creek has prolific knotweed, salt marsh gerardia, dwarf glasswort, four-toed salamanders and hog-nosed snakes; all rare species in the state.”
Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, New Hampshire
“The slender bright green glasswort that grows on northern beaches was called tétine-de-souris, literally, a mouse tit.”
“Elizabeth you siren me, coriander. glasswort you alveolus me, chocks.”
“The site's extensive salt marshes are dominated by a mixture of saltmarsh cordgrass, salt grass, black needlerush, sea ox-eye, glasswort and sea lavender.”
“They are known under many other names, including samphire a name they share with a seacoast plant in the carrot family, glasswort, pick-leweed, and poussepierre.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“Macerated sweet herbs he found me, lupin meal and glasswort, the better that I might cleanse myself; and when, at last, I was refreshed by my ablutions, he poured me a goblet of a full-bodied golden wine that seemed to infuse fresh life into my veins.”
“The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills.”
In the Heart of the Vosges And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller"
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘glasswort’.
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Worts and all
I have in mind the worts associated with a green thumb rather than a green beer - but as you can see by the name, I'll accept anything you have to offer.
butterwort, spiderwort, quillwort, woundwort, nipplewort, bellwort, liverwort, milkwort, water pennywort, navelwort, toothwort, wort and 128 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for glasswort.
knitandpurl "Then ask him if he wouldn't happen to have some glasswort, and if not than percebes, or goose barnacles, those little crustaceans like the ones you find in Galicia and the Madrilenian markets."
My Beautiful Bus by Jacques Jouet, translated by Eric Lamb, p 45 May 22, 2013