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Tamarisk redirects here. For other uses of tamarisk, see Tamarisk (disambiguation)

Tamarix
Tamarix aphylla in natural habitat in Israel
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Caryophyllales Family: Tamaricaceae Genus: Tamarix L.
Species
See text

The genus Tamarix (tamarisk) comprises about 50-60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa.

Tamarix gallica in flower

They are deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees growing to 1-15 m in height and forming dense thickets, The largest, Tamarix aphylla, is an evergreen tree that can grow to 15 m tall. They usually grow on saline soils, tolerating up to 15,000 ppm soluble salt and can also tolerate alkali conditions. Tamarisks are characterized by slender branches and grey-green foliage. The bark of young branches is smooth and reddish-brown. As the plants age, the bark becomes brownish-purple, ridged and furrowed. The leaves are scale-like, 1-2 mm long, and overlap each other along the stem. They are often encrusted with salt secretions. The pink to white flowers appear in dense masses on 5-10 cm long spikes at branch tips from March to September, though some species (e.g. T. aphylla) tend to flower during the winter.

A Tamarix species in natural habitat in Algeria

Tamarix can spread both vegetatively, by adventitious roots or submerged stems, and sexually, by seeds. Each flower can produce thousands of tiny (1 mm diameter) seeds that are contained in a small capsule usually adorned with a tuft of hair that aids in wind dispersal. Seeds can also be dispersed by water. Seedlings require extended periods of soil saturation for establishment. Tamarix species are fire-adapted, and have long tap roots that allow them to intercept deep water tables and exploit natural water resources. They are able to limit competition from other plants by taking up salt from deep ground water, accumulating it in their foliage, and from there depositing it in the surface soil where it builds up concentrations temporarily detrimental to some plants. The salt is washed away during heavy rains.

Tamarix species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora asthenella which feeds exclusively on T. africana.

Selected species

North American invasive species

Tamarix was introduced to the western United States (where it is often called "saltcedar") as an ornamental shrub in the early 1800s.[1] It establishes in disturbed and undisturbed streams, waterways, bottomlands, banks and drainage washes of natural or artificial waterbodies, moist rangelands and pastures, and other areas where seedlings can be exposed to extended periods of saturated soil for establishment.

It is commonly believed that saltcedar disrupts the structure and stability of North American native plant communities and degrades native wildlife habitat by outcompeting and replacing native plant species, monopolising limited sources of moisture, and increasing the frequency, intensity and effect of fires and floods. While it has been shown that individual plants may not consume larger quantities of plants than native species (Anderson, 1996,1998) it has also been shown that large dense stands of Tamarix do comsume more water than equivalent stands of native Cottonwoods (Sala 1996). There is an active and ongoing debate as to when Tamarix can outcomplete native plants and if it is actively displacing native plants or it just taking advantage of disterbance by removal of natives by humans and changes in flood regimes (Cooper 1999) (Cooper 2003) (Everitt 1980)(Everitt 1998)(Stromberg 1998). Regardless of the scientific debate, Tamarix has taken over large sections of riparian ecosystems in the Western United States that were once home to native cottonwoods and willows (Christensen 1962) (Stromberg 1998) (Zamora 2001) (Zavaleta 2000).

Miscellaneous

In Genesis 21:33, Abraham is recorded to have "planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba". He had built a well there earlier.

References

• Flora Europaea Tamarix
• Flora of China Tamarix species list
• U.S. NPS guide

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Tamarix

• Anderson, B. W. (1996), "Salt cedar, revegetation and riparian ecosystems in the Southwest.", Proceedings of the California Exotic Pest Plant Council, Symposium '95. California Exotic Pest Plant Council, Pacific Grove, California.: 32-41.
• Anderson, B. W. (1998), "The case for salt cedar.", Restoration and Management Notes 16: 130-134, 138.
• Cooper, D. (1999), "Factors Controlling the Establishment of Fremont Cottonwood Seedlings on the Upper Green River, USA", Regul. Rivers: Res. Mgmt. 15: 419-440.
• Cooper, D. (2003), "Multiple pathways for woody plant establishment on floodplains at local to regional scales.", Journal of Ecology 91: 182–196.
• Christensen, E. M. (1962), "The Rate of Naturalization of Tamarix in Utah.", American Midland Naturalist 68 (1): 51-57.
• Everitt, B. L. (1980), "Ecology of Saltcedar - A plea for research.", Environmental Geology (no. 3): 77-84.
• Everitt, B. L. (1998), "Chronology of the spread of Tamarisk in the central Rio Grande.", Wetlands (no. 18): 658-668.
• Stromberg, J. C. (1998), "Dynamics of Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and saltcedar (Tamarix chinesis) populations along the San Pedro River, Arizona", Journal of Arid Environments (no. 40): 133-155.
• Stromberg, J. C. (1998), "Functional equivalency of saltcedar (Tamarix chinensis) and Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) along a free-flowing river.", Wetlands (no. 18): 675-686.
• Zamora-Arroyo, F. (2001), "Regeneration of native trees in response to flood releases from the United States into the delta of the Colorado River, Mexico.", Journal of Arid Environments (no. 49): 49-64.
• Zavaleta, E. (2001), "The Economic Value of Controlling an Invasive Shrub", Ambio (no. 8): 462-467.

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