This is a succulent perennial which reaches about 30 cm high, forming large patches up to 100 cm diameter on subterranean root-systems or rhizomes creeping through muddy reaches of saltmarshes. Its slightly woody stems are quite distinctive as they seem to have joints but these are really fused leaves which are almost moulded into the dark green stems, the latter becoming orange as they age. There are really minute, yellow flowers, which come in threes. These ‘bloom’ from August to October. In Ireland, Perennial Glasswort is extremely rarely found, being known only from the south coast of County Wexford. It is protected under the Flora Protection Order. A native plant, it belongs to the Chenopodiaceae family.
I first recorded and photographed this plant in 2010 in County Wexford on a BSBI Field Trip with Paul Green, BSBI Vice-county Recorder for Counties Waterford and Wexford.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
