ˈsaltwort Bot.
[prob. after Du. zoutkruid; cf. G. salzkraut.]
A name for several maritime and salt-marsh plants. Cf. glasswort.
1. Any plant of the genus Salsola, spec. S. Kali (Common or Prickly Saltwort); = kali1 1.
| 1568 Turner Herbal iii. 37 Kali..hath no name in English... But lest this herbe shoulde be without a name, it maye be called Saltwurt, because it is salt in taste. 1671 Skinner Etymol. Ling. Angl., Bot., Salt-wort, Kali. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 101 A Plant..which the Botanists call Kali, and we Salt-wort. 1810 Crabbe Borough i. 41 Here sampire-banks and salt-wort bound the flood. 1828 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 18 Salsola fruticosa. Shrubby Saltwort. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. viii. 177 The salt⁓wort or glass-wort (Salsola kali), grows freely on most of the shores. 1884 [see kali1 1]. |
2. Black Saltwort, Glaux maritima. = milkwort 2.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. clix. 447 Of blacke Salt woort. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 326. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. IV. 234 Sea Milkwort, or Black Saltwort. 1867 Sowerby Eng. Bot. (ed. 3) VII. 154. |
3. A plant of the genus Salicornia, esp. S. herbacea; = glasswort a.
| 1597 [see glasswort]. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. 326. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvii. (1794) 233 note, Marsh Sampire, called also jointed Glasswort or Saltwort. 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. (ed. 14) 110 b, Salicornia annua (Salt⁓wort). 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Islands 787. |