The leaves of frosted orache are covered in flaky hairs, giving it a frosty look. If you scrape off this layer and hold the leaf up to the light, you can practically look through it. The chlorophyll is only present along the veins, otherwise the leaf is transparent.

Frosted orache is found along the coast from Brittany to Southern Scandinavia and along the British Islands. It is rare in the Netherlands. Although it used to grow sporadically along the coasts of North and South Holland and Friesland, the species is now only found in the delta region and on the Wadden Islands. The species is so rare because its habitat is so specific. It needs a flood mark made up of lots of washed up brown seaweed covered in a layer of sand in a sheltered area that doesn't wash away too readily. Winding coasts with lots of bays offer the best germination and survival chances.

Unlike Babington's and frosted orache, spear-leaved orache is very common along the Dutch coast. Its leaves resemble spears. Spear-leaved orache is found mostly along the coast, on humus-rich flood marks, along the edges of salt marshes and between the stones of sea dikes. More inland, it grows on damp, clayish, nitrogen-rich ground, such as river banks, and sometimes on farmland, on dunghills and in the shoulders of roads. Spear-leaved orache is can be eaten as a vegetable. After all, it is distantly related to spinach!