A strange forest.

This little annual plant growing in profusion on the local salt-marshes and mudflats is Glasswort Salicornia europaea. 

Wort is a very old name and has been in use since at least the 9th century. Chaucer uses it in his 14th century Canterbury Tales, in the Clerk's Tale: "Whan she homward cam she wolde brynge Wortes or othere herbes tymes ofte."

Wort as part of a plant's name usually indicates that it was once used in herbalism or for other practical uses. This is certainly the case for glasswort as in the past its ashes were used for making soda-based glass. 

The ashes of glasswort plants yield soda ash, which is an important ingredient for glassmaking and soapmaking. Soda ash is an alkali whose active ingredient is now known to be sodium carbonate. Glasswort and saltwort plants sequester the sodium they absorb from salt water into their tissues. Burning the plants converts some of this sodium into sodium carbonate