Glasswort puts on its fall display

Along the road to Brownwood Pavilion at Baytown Nature Center.

 Leaf peepers, look down. The glasswort is gorgeous this year.

For beautiful fall colors you can't beat glasswort, which is found in the sandy soil of salt marshes, wetlands and beaches.

Rather than leaves, it is the fleshy, succulent stems that are changing from bright greens to shades of orange and red.

Miniature forest.

Europeans gave the plant its name 400 to 500 years ago when they discovered they could burn the stems for glassmaking. They would use the ash combined with sand to make crude glass. According to local legend, Germans settling in Texas brought the glassmaking technique with them.

Also, some say it sounds like you are stepping on broken glass when you walk on a bed of glasswort. I can't vouch for that sound. I was in a nature center and stayed on the trail. Plus, it just seems rude to step on plants.

That hand is for scale only. No glasswort was hurt for this photo

Glasswort's fiery colors.

 Glasswort stems are edible. Most often the new green stems are used in fresh salads or pickled.

At BNC, field trippers often are given a broken stem to taste.  Yep, glasswort tastes salty. Or is that just the coyote-pee flavoring?