Suaeda glauca seed

LATIN NAME: Suaeda glauca

COMMON NAME: Glaucous Sea Blite

The glaucous sea blite is a handsome, upright, much-branched, annual herb of the salt marshes and the coast, and its fine, narrow, fleshy, bluish-green or greyish leaves and its small, inconspicuous, greenish flowers in the leaf axils, followed by the small, dry, single-seeded fruits, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the coast. It grows as an upright, much-branched, annual herb, reaching up to one metre or so, with the many upright, branching stems bearing the alternate, narrow, linear, pointed, fleshy, bluish-green or greyish leaves and, through the late summer, the small, inconspicuous, greenish flowers in the axils of the leaves, followed by the small, dry, single-seeded fruits. It is a species of the flowering herb in the amaranth family, and it is native to the salt marshes and the coasts of the northern hemisphere, while it is treasured for its fine, tough, salt-loving ways, and it is known as the glaucous sea blite.

In the amaranth family it is the fleshy, salt-loving sea blite of the coast, a plant that colours the salt marsh with its bluish-green, succulent dress.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The glaucous sea blite holds a place in the salt-marsh ecology papers of the northern hemisphere, and the botanists have mapped its place in the amaranth family and the coastal flora. The study of its fine ways of living in the salty ground has drawn the attention of the ecologists of the halophyte plants, and the food scientists have looked at the fleshy parts with their history of use as a tender green of the coast. It is a plant of the salt-tolerant, useful kind, and the growers of the coastal garden keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the coastal garden, the glaucous sea blite is the bluish-green plant of the salty corner. Its small flowers feed the small insects, its dry seeds feed the birds, and the upright, fleshy growth gives the salt garden a fine, sea-side presence. The fleshy, tender parts have been used as a green of the traditional coastal table, and the plant grows well in the moist, gritty, salty ground of the open, sunny spot. Fleshy-leaved, salt-loving and useful.

Sprinkle the fine seeds over the surface of pots of gritty, sandy soil and just press them in without covering them, since they like a little light, keep the pots in a bright, open spot and water them gently, and they’ll will show before long.