Sodium carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water. Historically, it was extracted from the ashes of plants grown in sodium-rich soils, and because the ashes of these sodium-rich plants were noticeably different from ashes of wood, sodium carbonate became known as "soda ash". It is produced in large quantities from sodium chloride and limestone by the Solvay process, as well as by carbonating sodium hydroxide which is made using the Chlor-alkali process.
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus Amaranthus. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it the most species-rich lineage within its parent order, Caryophyllales.
The Solvay process or ammonia-soda process is the major industrial process for the production of sodium carbonate (soda ash, Na2CO3). The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay during the 1860s. The ingredients for this are readily available and inexpensive: salt brine (from inland sources or from the sea) and limestone (from quarries). The worldwide production of soda ash in 2005 was estimated at 42 million tonnes, which is more than six kilograms (13 lb) per year for each person on Earth. Solvay-based chemical plants now produce roughly three-quarters of this supply, with the remaining being mined from natural deposits. This method superseded the Leblanc process.
The Salsoloideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
Saltwort is a common name for various genera of flowering plants that thrive in salty environments, typically in coastal salt marshes and seashores, including:
Halogeton is a plant genus of the family Amaranthaceae. The genus name, Halogeton, derives from the Greek words for "salt" and for "neighbor."
Russian thistle is a common name that can refer to:
Soda inermis, the opposite-leaved saltwort, oppositeleaf Russian thistle, or barilla plant, is a small, annual, succulent shrub that is native to the Mediterranean Basin. It is a halophyte that typically grows in coastal regions and can be irrigated with salt water. The plant was previously classified as Salsola soda, and many of the sources for this article used that designation.
Barilla refers to several species of salt-tolerant (halophyte) plants that, until the 19th century, were the primary source of soda ash and hence of sodium carbonate. The word "barilla" was also used directly to refer to the soda ash obtained from plant sources. The word is an anglicization of the Spanish word barrilla for saltwort plants.
Suaeda is a genus of plants also known as seepweeds and sea-blites. Most species are confined to saline or alkaline soil habitats, such as coastal salt-flats and tidal wetlands. Many species have thick, succulent leaves, a characteristic seen in various plant genera that thrive in salty habitats.
The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus Salicornia, but today the glassworts include halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems, such as mangrove swamps, never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.
Salsola is a genus of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. The genus sensu stricto is distributed in central and southwestern Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. A common name of various members of this genus and related genera is saltwort, for their salt tolerance. The genus name Salsola is from the Latin salsus, meaning "salty".
Salsola tragus, often known by its synonym Kali tragus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is known by various common names such as prickly Russian thistle, windwitch, or common saltwort. It is widely known simply as tumbleweed because, in many regions of the United States, it is the most common and most conspicuous plant species that produces tumbleweeds. Informally, it may be known as "'Kali or Salsola": the latter being its restored genus, containing 54 other species, into which the obsolete genus Kali has been subsumed.
Kali paulsenii is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common name barbwire Russian thistle. It is native to Eurasia and it is present in the American southwest as an introduced species and sometimes a weed in sandy, disturbed habitat types. It is an annual herb forming a brambly clump of intricately branched, prostrate to erect stems growing up to a meter long. The reddish stems are lined with yellow-green, thready, fleshy, or needlelike, spine-tipped leaves a few millimeters to three centimeters long. The inflorescence is an interrupted series of flowers, with one flower per leaf axil. The flower is surrounded by a disclike array of wide, winged sepals which are whitish at the tips and pinkish at the bases.
Soda stocksii is a shrub species of the family Amaranthaceae.
Kali was a genus of plants in the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae, that has now been subsumed into the genus Salsola.
Caroxylon vermiculatum, commonly known as Mediterranean saltwort, is a perennial plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It has many synonyms, including Salsola vermiculata and Nitrosalsola vermiculata. It is native to arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe where it is used as a fodder plant for livestock.
Soda rosmarinus is a perennial-green desert species of saltwort in the Amaranthaceae family. It is endemic to the lower Jordan Valley along the Dead Sea, in Israel and Jordan, and in the Syrian desert, Central Iraq and in the coastal regions of Saudi Arabia, the islands of Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran, commonly known in Arabic by the names ʾušnān and šenān and in the Neo-Aramaic languages by reflexes of ʾuḥlā. It is often used by Bedouins for cleaning as a soap substitute. In medieval Arabic literature, it is also known by the names of "green ushnan" and "launderers' potash", having been used since time immemorial to produce nabulsi soap and as an electuary in compounding theriac for use in treating scorpion stings, as well as for extracting potassium for other medicinal uses.
Caroxylon aphyllum is a small species of shrub in the family Amaranthaceae.
Salsola melitensis is an endemic vascular plant of the Maltese archipelago. Its generic name is derived from the Latin word “salsus” which means salty, attributing to the salt tolerant nature of the species within this genus. The genus name was published in 1753 in the Species Plantarum composed by Carl Linnaeus but was reclassified again by Akhani et al. in 2007.
