SALTWORT

EDIBLE LEAVES:
- RAW: Green Deane calls it a "pre-seasoned green." The leaves may be easily snapped off and eaten out-of-hand. They are most definitely salty, and although the flavor is pleasing to me, the fibers within the leaves are usually a bit to much for me to enjoy fully. The younger leaves near the leafy tips have less fibers, so I target those. Try tossing some atop a salad to add a salty crunch. I prefer cooking them briefly and pressing them through a sieve, to make a puree. Julia Morton tells us that —Dr. Howard [the co-author of her book on wild plants for survival] recommends boiling and straining to remove “strings” to make a salty puree.”
- PICKLED LEAVES: They apparently make good pickles. Use the younger leaves.
- COOKED GREEN: The young leaves may be steamed or boiled.
EDIBLE SEEDS:
- SEEDS: Green Deane writes, "pepper-corn size seeds edible in salads, toasted, or “popped”  like corn." - Oh my, I must experiment and get back to you.
- SEED OIL: "The seeds have a high oil content with high nutritional value." [4]
BUTTERFLY GARDENING: Planted in "butterfly gardens in saline areas along the coasts." [3] The larval host for the "
Great Southern White (Ascia monuste) butterflies, and possibly larval host for Eastern Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium isophthalma) butterflies. Nectar plant for Eastern Pygmy-Blue and other butterflies." [3]
RESTORATION: Recommended for "habitat restoration." [3] It "is a pioneer plant" that "covers quickly areas where hurricanes have destroyed the natural vegetation." [4] 

NATIVE TO: "Southern United States south to the Monroe County Keys; West Indies, Mexico, Central America and South America." [3] Florida [most, if not all, coastal counties]. It is invasive in Hawaii.
HABITAT: Coastal wetlands. [3] Salt marshes, openings in tidal swamps. [3] Highly salt and flood tolerant. [3] Low drought tolerance. [3] Brackish marshes, mangrove swamps, "margins of saltpans and wind-tidal flats." [4]
DECSRIPTION: Prostrate evergreen shrub, scrambling, much wider than tall. Forming "dense colonies." [4] "Colonizing new mud, but once rooted, growing bushy." [1]
- HEIGHT: "Typically 2-4 feet in height." [3]
- LEAVES: Roundish, succulent, swollen, fleshy, light green to yellowish-green, occasionally reddish. "Narrowly club-shaped." [1]
- FLOWERS: Dioecious, inconspicuous, small, appear in spikes, appearing "mid-summer to fall." [1]  Yellowish-white, [3]
- FRUIT: Green and fleshy while developing, a "cylindrical berry." [3] 
ETYMOLOGY: Maritima = of the ocean.
PROPAGATION: Seed, ground layering, and division. [3]
RELATED SPECIES: There are no other Batis species here in Florida, in fact, there is just one other species in the world [native to Australasica]. It is interesting to note that our native species is dioecious, while the non-native is monoecious. [1]
NOTE: Do not confuse this species with other plants also known as Saltwort, including......................................... ?Salsola genus?
CLASSIFICATION: "Some botanists divide B. maritima into five species, with B. californica, B. fruticosa, B. spinosa and B. vermiculatus split off, but this interpretation is not widely followed." [1]