Everything about Glasswort totally explained
The common name
Glasswort came into use in the 16th Century to describe plants growing in England whose ashes could be used for making
soda-based (as opposed to
potash-based)
glass. The glassworts are succulent, annual "
halophytes", or plants that thrive in
saline environments, such as seacoasts and
salt marshes. While the original English glasswort plants belong to the
genus Salicornia, the term has been extended over the years to halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems such as
mangrove swamps never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.
The ashes of glasswort plants, and also of their Mediterranean counterpart
saltwort plants, yield
soda ash, which is an important ingredient for glassmaking and soapmaking. Soda ash is an
alkali whose active ingredient is now known to be
sodium carbonate.
Glasswort and saltwort plants sequester the sodium that they absorb from salt water into their tissues (see
Salsola soda). Ashing of the plants converts some of this sodium into sodium carbonate (or "
soda," in one of the old uses of the term). The sodium carbonate can be purified by washing ("lixiviating") the ashes and boiling the solution dry.
The appearance of the word
glasswort in English during the 16th Century is reasonably contemporaneous with a 16th Century resurgence in English glassmaking, which had suffered a long decline after Roman times. This resurgence was led by glassmakers who emigrated to England from
Lorraine and from
Venice. The Lorraine glassmakers brought with them the technology of, the greenish glass that utilized
potash from wood ashes as a flux. The
Venetian glassmakers brought with them the technology of
cristallo, the immaculately clear glass that used
soda ash as a flux. These glassmakers would have recognized
Salicornia europaea growing in England as a source for soda ash. Prior to their arrival, it was said that the plant "hath no name in English."
Scotland had a large 18th century industry producing soda ash from seaweed. The soda ash from this source was known as
kelp. This industry was so lucrative that it led to overpopulation in the
Western Isles of Scotland, and one estimate is that 100,000 people were occupied with "kelping" during the summer months. In the same period, soda ash (
la soude de Narbonne) was produced in quantity from glasswort proper around
Narbonne, France. The commercialization of the
Leblanc process for synthesizing sodium carbonate (from salt,
limestone, and
sulfuric acid) brought an end to the era of farming for soda ash in the first half of the 19th century.
Glasswort Species
Plants that have been called glassworts include:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Glasswort'.
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