Mediterranean saltbush
Atriplex halimus
Family · Amaranthaceae · Harmless
The silvery shrub that grows where the soil is salty: saltmarshes, salt pans and the sea's edge. The leaves really do taste of salt, and that is the field mark.
Dunes and sand · Fields and pasture · Walls and rocks
Also known assea orache, saltbush
How to tell it
Thick diamond-shaped leaves covered in a white powder that rubs off on your fingers. An overall silver-grey look, visible from afar across a saltmarsh. A clearly salty taste.
What it is confused with
Sea purslane
Halimione portulacoides
They live side by side in the saltmarsh and both are harmless. Sea purslane is prostrate with narrow leaves; saltbush is an upright shrub with broad diamond leaves.
What it is for
Leaves used as a salty seasoning and in salad in saltmarsh cooking, and emergency fodder on saline ground. It is also the plant that tells you the water there is brackish.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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