[1][2] Its holotype was collected by Edwin James along the Canadian River in the Texas panhandle in 1820.

[2][4] In 1889 Edward Lee Greene moved it to the genus Suaeda (he continued to misspell it as moquini).

In 1918 James Francis Macbride moved it to the genus Suaeda, but in 1977 C. O. Hopkins and W. H. Blackwell argued that this name was both a nomen nudum and superfluous (not based on a real holotype), only for H. J. Schenk and W. R. Ferren Jr. to argue in 2001 that Rafinesque had clearly referenced Torrey's description of the specimen, and that it was thus provided with both a formal taxonomic description as well as a type.

[2] The species is a shrub or subshrub growing from a woody base with many spreading branches, reaching up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in height.

It grows in many types of habitat with saline and alkaline substrates, such as desert flats, dry lakes (locally called 'playas') and seeps.