[1][2] It is a halophyte (a salt-tolerant plant) that typically grows in coastal regions and can be irrigated with salt water.

The famed clarity of 16th-century cristallo glass from Murano and Venice depended upon the purity of "Levantine soda ash",[4] and the nature of this ingredient was kept secret.

In Greek it is called almyra, while in Italian its common names include barba di frate, agretti, and liscari sativa (short: lischi or lischeri).

"[6] This annual, succulent plant can grow into small shrubs up to 0.7 m tall (sometimes called subshrubs).

[9] It has become naturalized along the Pacific coast of North America,[10] and there is concern about its invasiveness in California's salt marshes.

In the 18th century, Spain had an enormous industry producing barilla (one type of plant-derived soda ash) from saltwort plants.

[3] The commercialization of the Leblanc process for synthesizing sodium carbonate (from salt, limestone, and sulfuric acid) brought an end to the era of farming for soda ash in the first half of the 19th century.

Though the plant is often grown in saltwater-irrigated land in the Mediterranean Basin, it will grow without salt water.

[18] Salsola soda is sometimes confused with a plant known in Japan as okahijiki (land seaweed), which is actually the species S. komarovii.

[citation needed] Salsola soda has also been studied as a bioremediation "biodesalinating companion plant" for crops such as tomatoes and peppers when they are grown in saline soils.