Tamarix ramosissima


Tamarix ramosissima, commonly known as saltcedar or salt cedar, is a deciduous arching shrub with reddish stems, feathery, pale green foliage, and characteristic small pink flowers.

Description

Tamarix ramosissima is a hardy shrub or small tree native to Europe and Asia. It is a vigorous, deciduous shrub grown for its ornamental reddish stems, its showy plumes of flowers, and its unusual feathery leaves. Its hardiness and tolerance for poor soil make it a popular, easy to grow shrub. It can grow up to 8 m in height and up to 5 m in width. It can be used as a screen, windbreak, informal hedge or specimen shrub.
It produces upright racemes of small, pink, five-petaled flowers from late summer to early autumn which cover the new wood of the plant. It is tolerant of many soil types, but prefers a well-drained, light or sandy soil in full sun. This plant is considered an invasive species in warmer climates.

Invasive species

Tamarix ramosissima is a major invasive plant species in the Southwestern United States and Desert Region of California, consuming large amounts of groundwater in riparian and oases habitats. The balance and strength of the native flora and fauna are being helped by various restoration projects, by removing tamarisk groves as if they were noxious weeds.

Salt

The plant's common name refers to its ability to tolerate salt water by excreting salt into its leaves through specialized salt glands — thereby producing salt deposits which kill other species; these salt deposits can also weaken interatomic binding in soil clays, leading to increased erosion.