Glowing in the afternoon sun at Nauset Marsh like Chihuly art, Salicornia ambigua, the perennial glasswort, unambiguously lives up to its name. Evolved to survive the salt water as a succulent, glasswort uses its high water content and turgid structure to help regulate its salinity, steering excess sodium into the flesh to be stored. Gathering a similar plant on the shores of the Mediterranean, medieval glassmakers would utilize this stored resource by burning it down to soda ash, an additive that helped make their glassmaking process more efficient.
