Publication: N. Amer. Fl. 21: 85. 1916.

Origin: Native

Herbarium search: CPNWH

Notes: H&C name S. europaea is misapplied. This is the common native annual species in coastal marshes. FNA suggests S. virginica may be the best name for this plant, if the Atlantic and Pacific populations are the same taxon. As with all our Corispermum taxa, for many decades this plant was mistakenly given the binomial and introduced status of a European species.

FNA4: "Salicornia depressa is the common and widespread species in coastal areas of North America. No detailed taxonomic investigation of the tetraploid populations has ever been undertaken in North America. It is possible that a number of different taxa exist; the Pacific Coast populations in particular seem distinct from those of the Atlantic Coast.

This species has generally been called Salicornia europaea by North American authors, but that name refers to a diploid European species that does not occur in North America.

The earliest name that is probably referable to this species is Salicornia virginica Linnaeus, which must be typified by specimens collected by John Clayton probably from Virginia. The specimens are sterile but clearly annual, as indicated by Linnaeus in the protologue. The name was applied to an annual species by P. C. Standley (1916), but subsequently came to be misapplied to the perennial species of the east coast now treated in Sarcocornia."

Last updated 10/22/2023 by David Giblin.