More on the cultural history of Glasswort
The appearance of the word Glasswort in English during the 16th century is reasonably contemporaneous with a 16th Century resurgence in English glassmaking, which had suffered a long decline after Roman times. This resurgence was led by immigrant glassmakers from Lorraine and from Venice. The Venetians brought with them the technology of cristallo, the immaculately clear glass that used soda ash – sodium carbonate - as a flux. These glassmakers would have recognized Salicornia europaea growing in England as a source for soda ash. Prior to their arrival, it was said that the plant “hath no name in English.”