A student of his, Peter Forsskål, joined an expedition undertaking a scientific exploration of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and further in 1760.

Only one explorer survived the journey, but Forsskål's journal and notes made it safely back to Copenhagen, and in 1775 his new data was summarised by the last remaining member of the expedition.

[10] William Forsyth Jr. translated Gmelin's 1791 thirteenth edition of the Systema Naturae into English as A Botanical nomenclator in 1794, but decided to move this species to Salsola vera in his translation, and gives Gmelin's 1776 work as the publication of the basionym, further confusing the issue.

According to Petteri Uotila, writing for the EUR+MED flora project in 2011, this is a species which is only found in Europe in Spain and Sicily, and is otherwise distributed in Africa, four of the Canary Islands, and the Middle East.

[15][16][17] One of the only botanical authorities to recognise all three taxa within the country are Avinoam Danin and Ori Fragman-Sapir in Israel.

In Europe the range extends northwards along the Atlantic coasts of Spain, Portugal, France to south-eastern England.

[24]: 72 In Asia it appears that this species is limited to around the Mediterranean region in the Levant and along the coasts of southern Anatolia.

[2] It is one of a number of plants high in sodium known as 'barilla' which were used to make soda ash for use in the soap and glass industries.

[25] In a trial in Tunisia it has been found possible to grow both Suaeda and the cordgrass Spartina alterniflora using seawater to irrigate them and increase yields, but only when additional nitrogen and phosphorus are added.

The high salt content of the plants will be likely to limit their use as stand alone forage crops, it being more likely they will be used as components of a feed mix.