Glasswort, Perennial

Information on Perennial Glasswort

Common Name: Perennial Glasswort
Scientific Name: Sarcocornia perennis
Irish Name: Lus gloine buan
Family Group: Chenopodiaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Perennial Glasswort could sometimes be confused with:

Glassworts,

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

This species is protected under the Flora (Protection) Order, 2015 and is classed as VULNERABLE in the Red Data List of Vascular Plants 2016. 

This plant was formerly known as Arthrocnemum perenne.

Glasswort, Perennial
Glasswort, Perennial
Glasswort, Perennial