The Pickleweeds. Sounds like a dysfunctional family on a bad sitcom. No? My career as a screenwriter is over before it started. Well, in reality, they are in the Chenopodiaceae Family, also known as the Goosefoot Family, one of the older flowering plant families. The Pickleweeds are actually three different species in the Salicornia genus: Dwarf Pickleweed (Salicornia bigelovii), Parish’s Pickleweed (Salicornia subterminalis) and Common Pickleweed (Salicornia virginica).
I grouped the three species together because people love the Pickleweed. On nature walks, people love to point it out; its celebrity precedes it. Also, you can munch on it and the response is always so wonderful when different audiences watch me demonstrate the Pickleweed’s edibility (sidenote: eating wild plants is one of my favorite things to do on a nature walk because most people equate anything not approved by the grocery store as something analogous to Fear Factor). Pickleweed is also highly visible: it has bright green, succulent “pickles” sticking in the air.
But wait, if there are three species of it are we talking about the same plant? Yes. I mean no. The confusion comes from the common name because they are all called Pickleweed. While they look different from each other they have similar characteristics. Most people know Pickleweed because Salicornia virginica can be found dominant throughout the marsh plain and we attribute the same idea for the others. But each species is very unique, destined to inhabit a particular part of the marsh, sometimes at different times. Blah, blah, blah. What does that mean though?
Parish’s Pickleweed (Salicornia subterminalis) is a perennial that grows in the high-marsh and is the most deeply verdant, stubbiest and shrubbiest out of the three. It makes a wonderful home for the Belding’s Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi), a State-Endangered species of bird that resides in the marsh throughout the year.
Common Pickleweed (Salicornia virginica) is the one everyone talks about. This perennial grows throughout the middle-marsh and is the most pickley of the Pickleweeds: green, salty and it tastes most similar – I promise.
Dwarf Pickleweed (Salicornia bigelovii) is the odd-ball of the family. Instead of hanging out in the marsh throughout the year, this guy pops up in the summer and fall and goes on vacation the rest of the year. Or something like that. This Pickleweed is an annual: it grows up as big and strong as it can then exhausts its resources, flowers, fruits and in a miraculous example of nature, dries out and drops seed.
The Pickleweeds are really interesting plants that grow no taller than knee high. They have itty-bitty flowers with no petals, just stamens and anthers sticking out of the green stalks. The plants remind me of miniature Saguaro Cactuses, just as stoic yet a lot less spiny. They are halophytes like all the plants I write about, which means that they don’t need salt-water to live but have adapted to living within the briny water.
One of the coolest things about the Pickleweeds is that they are high in natural oils. This and the fact that they can live, flourish even, with saline and somewhat toxic water has made them highly attractive to some creative individuals attempting to solve some of the world’s pressing environmental problems. This group is taking the Salicornia and utilizing it for food crop, bio-fuel and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. All this with salt-water, thus saving highly valuable fresh water. Pretty amazing. You can read more about it here: LATimes. If not a sitcom, how about a Super Hero story? Too cheesy? Ok, I’ll stick to plants.
Enjoy,
I grouped the three species together because people love the Pickleweed. On nature walks, people love to point it out; its celebrity precedes it. Also, you can munch on it and the response is always so wonderful when different audiences watch me demonstrate the Pickleweed’s edibility (sidenote: eating wild plants is one of my favorite things to do on a nature walk because most people equate anything not approved by the grocery store as something analogous to Fear Factor). Pickleweed is also highly visible: it has bright green, succulent “pickles” sticking in the air.
But wait, if there are three species of it are we talking about the same plant? Yes. I mean no. The confusion comes from the common name because they are all called Pickleweed. While they look different from each other they have similar characteristics. Most people know Pickleweed because Salicornia virginica can be found dominant throughout the marsh plain and we attribute the same idea for the others. But each species is very unique, destined to inhabit a particular part of the marsh, sometimes at different times. Blah, blah, blah. What does that mean though?
Parish’s Pickleweed (Salicornia subterminalis) is a perennial that grows in the high-marsh and is the most deeply verdant, stubbiest and shrubbiest out of the three. It makes a wonderful home for the Belding’s Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi), a State-Endangered species of bird that resides in the marsh throughout the year.
Common Pickleweed (Salicornia virginica) is the one everyone talks about. This perennial grows throughout the middle-marsh and is the most pickley of the Pickleweeds: green, salty and it tastes most similar – I promise.
Dwarf Pickleweed (Salicornia bigelovii) is the odd-ball of the family. Instead of hanging out in the marsh throughout the year, this guy pops up in the summer and fall and goes on vacation the rest of the year. Or something like that. This Pickleweed is an annual: it grows up as big and strong as it can then exhausts its resources, flowers, fruits and in a miraculous example of nature, dries out and drops seed.
The Pickleweeds are really interesting plants that grow no taller than knee high. They have itty-bitty flowers with no petals, just stamens and anthers sticking out of the green stalks. The plants remind me of miniature Saguaro Cactuses, just as stoic yet a lot less spiny. They are halophytes like all the plants I write about, which means that they don’t need salt-water to live but have adapted to living within the briny water.
One of the coolest things about the Pickleweeds is that they are high in natural oils. This and the fact that they can live, flourish even, with saline and somewhat toxic water has made them highly attractive to some creative individuals attempting to solve some of the world’s pressing environmental problems. This group is taking the Salicornia and utilizing it for food crop, bio-fuel and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. All this with salt-water, thus saving highly valuable fresh water. Pretty amazing. You can read more about it here: LATimes. If not a sitcom, how about a Super Hero story? Too cheesy? Ok, I’ll stick to plants.
Enjoy,
Taylor
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