Glasswort

Also Samphire, Marsh Samphire, Sea Pickle, Sea Bean, Pousse-pied

There are two edible plants, both called samphire, both venerable, both known in England and France, where they grow wild along the seacoast, marshes, and in cliff crevices. One is Salicornia, of the Goosefoot family, the other is Crithmum maritimum (sometimes called rock samphire), a fragrant fleshy plant of the umbelliferous clan.

The names for both developed along similar lines: the French called the plant perce-pierre (rock-piercer) and Saint-Pierre (from Saint Peter, the rock upon which [whom] Christ built his church); along the way the names were corrupted, both in English and French, into sampier, sampyre, passe-pierre, pousse-pierre, and samphire. Both plants wound up in old cookbooks as samphire, both often pickled. (To further confuse, it is probably Salicornia stricta, which was used in glass manufacture, not europea or herbacea, above, that gave us the common name “glasswort.”)