Salsola
(a diminutive from salsus, salted; alluding to the salty soil in which the plant is found). Alicant Soda; Saltwort. ORD. Chenopodiaceae. A genus comprising about forty species of mostly hardy herbs, shrubs, or sub-shrubs, of variable habit, mainly natives of saline districts in temperate regions. The ashes of S. Kali, the Prickly Saltwort, a British plant, and of S. Soda, a South European and North American species, were formerly much used in the production of an impure carbonate of soda, known as Barilla (see remarks under Salicornia). The species have no horticultural value.