#pickleweed

Find:marshs, bays with ocean water.

Description:Each plant consists of round, branching stems that are divided by joints into individual segments. The leaves and flowers are so tiny that you will probably never notice them.

Edible parts and uses:plant is edible raw or when cooked.top-half of stems can be harvested, allowing the bottom to grow a new shoot.plant is best when gathered before flowering.

AKA Sarcocornia quinqueflora, bead weed, beaded glasswort, ureure in New Zealand or simply glasswort. The genus are also called Pickleweeds.

A succulent halophyte found wetter coastal areas of Australia and New Zealand, although it's not native to the latter. Oddly enough it's also found in two places in Central Otago in New Zealand, which is nowhere near the coast, but did use to have extensive salt pan habitat.

Historically, people used to burn glassworts to collect the ashes, for the soda content which was used to make soap and glass. It's also edible and the newer shoots quite palatable. Certainly the orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) thinks so - the seeds are a critical food, so the ongoing loss of samphire flats is a disaster for the 180 remaining birds.

The Ridgway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus), not to be confused with the Clapper Rail is an interesting species of Bird. Also known as the Marsh Hen these once abundant birds are now decreasing in population rapidly. Actually, depending on your source, this species is either threatened or endangered. According to the ICUN Red list it is considered threatened. Likely the reasoning for such confusion is the fact that the Clapper Rail, Ridgway’s Rail, and the Mangrove Rail were considered the same species until 2014 (Berkley). 

These indicator species are found in Marshes in Southern California, San Francisco, and Mexico. They are most threatened by habitat loss and predation. “ The population in California's San Francisco Bay has been severely compromised as up to 90% of its original 285 square miles of marsh has been filled, destroyed, or diked, and much of the remainder is degraded. (Cornell)”

Ways you can help:

If you live in the area be sure to walk with dogs leashed around marshes, and don’t let cats roam freely

If you come across free roaming cats in these areas, don’t feed them

Volunteer or Donate to the Living Coast - An organization based in San Diego, California which as the head of a major Rail Breeding Program. It’s also the only zoo in the world you can see a Ridgway’s Rail in person

Pick up Trash 

Check out the Links below and learn more about the importance of salt marshes and support conservation of the vital habitats

Sources:

https://rfs-env.berkeley.edu/restoration/ridgways-rail-conservation

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/san_diego_bay/wildlife_and_habitat/Light-footed_Ridgways_Rail.html

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clapper_Rail/id

https://www.thelivingcoast.org/saving-the-endangered-ridgways-rail/

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ridgways_Rail/lifehistory

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/ridgways-rail

About the Illustration

The rail above is pictured with Native Flora around it’s habitat

The California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Silverweed (Argentina anserina)

Pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica)