Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Salicornia rubra A. Nels.
- Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae)
- Flowering: July-November
- Field Marks: All saltworts have leafless, jointed stems and flowers in fleshy cylindrical spikes. The red saltwort is an annual that has the joints of the spike longer than thick.
- Habitat: Moist alkaline or salty areas.
- Habit: Annual herb with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Upright or ascending, branched from the base, up to 1 foot tall, smooth, with opposite, jointed branchlets, with the joints longer than thick, usually turning reddish.
- Leaves: Reduced to scales, opposite.
- Flowers: 1-7 in a group, sunken in the joints of succulent spikes, the joints longer than thick, the spikes up to 2 1/2 inches long, up to 1/8 inch thick, with the central flower higher than the others.
- Sepals: United, barely with 3-4 teeth, rather fleshy.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 1-2.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 2.
- Fruits: Oblongoid, more or less enclosed by the fleshy sepals; seeds yellow-brown, minutely hairy, about 1/12 inch long.
Previous Species -- Arctic Pearlwort (Sagina saginoides)
Return to Species List -- Group 7
Next Species -- Long-leaf Starwort (Stellaria longifolia)
