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 sodiu… (More on Glasswort)