A plant adapted to grow in saline (salty) environments such as salt marshes, coastal areas, or inland salt flats. These plants have specialized mechanisms to exclude, excrete, or tolerate high concentrations of salt that would kill most other plants.
From Greek 'halos' meaning 'salt' and 'phyton' meaning 'plant.' The term developed as botanists studied the unique plant communities in coastal and inland saline environments.
Halophytes are nature's desalination plants! Some species like glasswort can tolerate salt concentrations higher than seawater by storing salt in specialized bladder cells that they eventually shed, while mangroves filter salt out through their roots and excrete it through their leaves.
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