Orache (saltwort)
Plants and Trees in the Bible
The orache plant grows up to 2 meters (7 feet) tall, with many branches emerging at ground level. Its stem and branches have small silver-gray leaves covered with tiny hairs. Its leaves are edible but salty. Orache belongs to the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae), which includes spinach.
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In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
מַלּוּחַ malluach · 1 verse
More about it
describes an unfortunate group of people who in their hunger pluck malluach and the leaves of bushes to eat. Although a few botanists render malluach as “mallow” (so RSV), Zohary, following Moldenke and others, holds that malluach refers to the Shrubby Orache Atriplex halimus, also called saltbush. The Septuagint uses the Greek word halimōn (coming from halmē “salted”), which refers to a species of saltwort or orache. Orache is abundant especially in salty areas in the desert and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. If we follow the Septuagint, orache or saltwort is also appropriate in (see 3.5.6 Mallow).
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Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema