''Arthroceras subterminale'' is a species of flowering plant in the Amaranth family known by the common name Parish's glasswort. It is the only species in the genus ''Arthroceras''. This coastal and inland

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

native plant is a shrub that is found southerly into northern Mexico, also in both coastal and inland areas, including

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es, alkali flats, and other habitats with saline soils. As a

halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores. ...

, capable of growing in substrates with high salt concentrations, this glasswort is a perennial herb or

subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...

growing in low clumps up to a meter wide mature plants having woody bases branching into fleshy, jointed green stems. The leaves appear as fused rings around stem, the tip of each individual blade narrowing to a point. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a fleshy, sticklike spike of minute flowers, each flower just a pocket made up of the joined

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s; there are no petals.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
Amaranthaceae Barilla plants Plants described in 1898 Taxa named by Samuel Bonsall Parish {{Amaranthaceae-stub