Description:Salt cedar plants are spreading shrubs or small trees, 5-20 feet tall, with numerous slender branches and small, alternate, scale-like leaves. The pale pink to white flowers are small, perfect and regular, and arranged in spike-like racemes. The distinct petals and sepals occur in fours or fives. The fruit is a capsule (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1961).
Salt cedar (Tamarix) taxonomy is currently in a state of confusion. The number of species in the genus has fluctuated widely because members of the genus have few constant differentiating features, and taxonomists have disagreed over which features are most important. Eight species have been listed as introduced into the United States and Canada. These species can be effectively divided into two groups. Tamarix aphylla, an evergreen tree, does not sexually reproduce in this climate, so it is not seriously invasive. Deciduous, shrubby species, including T. pentandra, T. tetranda, T. gallica, T. chinensis, T. ramosissima, and T. parvifolia, as described by various authors, are more serious invasive threats (Rodman 1989). Some authors continue to distinguish many species, while others consider these shrubby plants as one variable species or hybridizing group best designated by the single name T. pentandra (Sudbrock 1993).
History:It is believed that nurserymen on the east coast made the first introduction of saltcedar to North America in 1823. Saltcedar appeared on the west coast, where it was apparently brought in from eastern nurseries. It was planted as an ornamental in the western United States, but by the 1870?s, it was reported to have escaped cultivation. By the 1920?s, saltcedar was becoming a serious problem, spreading rapidly through the watersheds of the southwest (Brotherson and Winkel 1986).
Biology & Spread:
Ecological Threat:
US Habitat:
Seedlings establish most frequently in soils that are seasonally saturated at the surface. It appears to grow best in saline soils (up to 15,000 ppm sodium), but saltcedar is adaptable and tolerant of a wide variety of environmental conditions (Brotherson and Field 1987).
Distribution
US Nativity:
Introduced to U.S.
Native Origin:
Meditteranean region (Alfred Rehder, Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs: Hardy in North America, The MacMillan Co., New York (1967)); NatureServe Explorer
US States:
AZ, CA, LA, SC, TX
EDDMapS: View Texas Map from Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System for
Tamarix africana
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Listing Source
Texas Department ofAgriculture Noxious Plant List
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Prohibited Exotic Species
Invaders Program
Federal Noxious Weed
Union of Concerned Scientists
United States Forest Service Southern Research Station
Hitchcock, C.L. and A. Cronquist. 1961. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Volume 3: Saxifragaceae to Ericaceae. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Hitchcock, C.L. and A. Cronquist. 1961. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Volume 3: Saxifragaceae to Ericaceae. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Sudbrock, A. 1993. Tamarisk control. I. Fighting Back: An overview of the invasion, and a low-impact way of fighting it. Restoration and Management Notes 11: 31-34.
Brotherson, J.D. and V. Winkle. 1986. Habitat relationships of saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima) in central Utah. Great Basin Naturalist. 46: 535-541
Rodman, J. 1989. Reflections on Tamarisk bashing. Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Brotherson, J.D. and D, Field. 1987. Tamarix: Impacts of a successful weed. Rangelands 9: 110-112.
