page_title: Salicornia
section_title: Systematics
hierarchical_section_title: Salicornia / Systematics
caption_attribution_description: Salicornia bigelovii at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, California, USA
context_page_description: Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to North America, Europe, South Africa, and South Asia. Common names for the genus include glasswort, pickleweed, picklegrass, and marsh samphire; these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia. To French speakers in Atlantic Canada, they are known, colloquially, as "titines de souris". The main European species is often eaten, called marsh samphire in Britain, and the main North American species is occasionally sold in grocery stores or appears on restaurant menus, usually as 'sea beans' or samphire greens or sea asparagus.
context_section_description: The genus Salicornia was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. Salicornia europaea was selected as the type species.
  The taxonomic classification of this genus is extremely difficult (and has been called a "taxonomic nightmare"), determination of species seems almost impossible for non-specialists. The reasons for those difficulties are the reduced habit with weak morphological differentiation, and high phenotypic variability. As the succulent plants lose their characteristics while drying, herbarium specimens often cannot be determined with certainty and are less suited for taxonomic studies.
  Based on molecular genetic research (Kadereit et al. 2007, 2012), Salicornia comprises the following species:
  In Eurasia: 
  Salicornia europaea species group, Common glasswort, with two cryptic species:
  Salicornia europaea L., with three subspecies
  Salicornia europaea subsp. europaea, along coasts from southern Spain to northern Scandinavia
  Salicornia europaea subsp. disarticulata (Moss) Lambinon & Vanderpoorten, Atlantic coasts of Brittany, the Netherlands and southern England.
  Salicornia europaea subsp. × marshallii Lambinon & Vanderpoorten, the hybrid of both former subspecies, Atlantic coasts of Brittany and the Netherlands
  Salicornia perennans Willd. (Syn. Salicornia prostrata Pallas), with two subspecies:
  Salicornia perennans subsp. perennans, with wide mediterranean-continental distribution, from North Africa and the Mediterranean region to the Baltic Sea and White Sea (occurring locally at coasts of the Atlantic and North Sea), in Asia to Yakutsk (Siberia), Japan, and Korean Peninsula.
  Salicornia perennans subsp. altaica (Lomon.) G. Kadereit & Piirainen, endemic to Altai Mountains (Russia, Mongolia)
  Salicornia procumbens species group:
  Salicornia procumbens Sm., with four subspecies:
  Salicornia procumbens subsp. procumbens, widely distributed along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts from Morocco to Scandinavia, inland occurrences in Turkey and Ukraine.
  Salicornia procumbens subsp. freitagii (Yaprak & Yardakulol) G. Kadereit & Piirainen, endemic to Turkey (Anatolia).
  Salicornia procumbens subsp. pojarkovae (Semenova) G. Kadereit & Piirainen, coasts of the White Sea (Russia) and Barents Sea (Norway).
  Salicornia procumbens subsp. heterantha (S.S. Beer & Demina) G. Kadereit & Piirainen, endemic to southeast European Russia (Rostov Oblast).
  Salicornia persica Akhani, with two subspecies:
  Salicornia persica subsp. persica, in Iran
  Salicornia persica subsp. iranica (Akhani) G. Kadereit & Piirainen, in Iran, and probably in eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia.
  In North America:
  Salicornia maritima S.L.Wolff & Jefferies, Slender glasswort, coasts of southeastern Canada, northeastern United States, southern Alaska. (proved to be genetically identical to Salicornia europaea)
  Salicornia bigelovii Torrey, Dwarf glasswort, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic coasts to Maine, southern California.
  Salicornia depressa Standley, (probable synonym  Salicornia virginica). Pacific coasts from Alaska to California, Atlantic coasts from Canada to South Carolina.
  Salicornia rubra A.Nelson, salty inland habitats of the central United States and Canada.
  In Africa:
  Salicornia praecox A.Chev., western Senegal
  Salicornia senegalensis A.Chev., western Senegal
  Salicornia perrieri A.Chev., East African coasts from Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, probably in Tanzania and Zanzibar
  Salicornia pachystachya Bunge ex Ungern-Sternb., East African coasts from southern Kenya to KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar
  Salicornia meyeriana Moss, South African coasts from Vanrhynsdorp to Durban
  Salicornia uniflora Toelken, southwestern Namibia (Lüderitz) and northwestern South Africa (Darling)
  In South Asia:
  Salicornia brachiata Roxb., Umari keerai, coasts of Ceylon and from East India to Bengal.
caption: Salicornia bigelovii
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