All three belong to the natural order Chenopodiaceae (or “Goose-foot” family).
The armajo is the typical plant of the marisma, flourishing even where there is a considerable percentage of salt in the soil. This aquatic shrub increases most in dry seasons, a series of wet winters having a disastrous effect on its growth. The Sapina, above mentioned, has a curious effect when eaten by mares (which is often the case when other food is scarce) of inducing a form of intoxication from which many die. Indeed, the deaths from Ensapinadas represent a serious loss to horse-breeders whose mares are sent to graze in the marismas. Cattle are not affected.
Formerly the Sapina possessed a commercial value, being used (owing to its alkaline qualities) in the manufacture of soap. Nowadays it is replaced by other chemicals.
Here and there, owing to some imperceptible gradient, the marisma is traversed by broad channels called caños, where, by reason of the water having a definite flow, the soil has become less saline. The armajo at such spots becomes scarce or disappears altogether, its place being taken by quite different plants, namely: Spear-grass (Cyperus), Candilejo, Bayunco, the English names of which we do not know.
Efforts have been made from time to time to reclaim and utilise portions of the marisma by draining the water to the river; but failure has invariably resulted for the following reasons:
(1) The intense saltness of the soil.
(2) That the marisma lies largely on a lower level than the river banks.
(3) The river being tidal, its water is salt or brackish.
There are vast areas of far better land in Spain which might be reclaimed with certainty and at infinitely less cost.