Down on the marshes.

This little annual plant growing on the local salt-marshes and mudflats is Glasswort Salicornia europaea, an annual plant.

Wort is a very old name and has been in use since at least the 9th century. Chaucer uses it in in the Clerk's Tale in his 14th century Canterbury Tales: Whan she homward cam she wolde brynge Wortes or othere herbes tymes ofte. Wort as part of a plant's common name often indicates that it was once used in herbalism or for other practical uses. This is certainly the case for glasswort as in the past its highly alkaline ashes were used for making soda-based glass. Thus, the name glasswort.

The plant also had its medicinal uses, the 17th century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, for example,  praised the cleansing qualities of its juices.