Tamarix
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- Tamarisk redirects here. For other uses of tamarisk, see Tamarisk (disambiguation)
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 Tamarix aphylla in natural habitat in Israel
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The genus Tamarix (tamarisk) comprises about 50-60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa.
They are coniferous 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.
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.
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[edit] North American invasive species
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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, bottom lands, banks and drainage washes of natural or artificial water bodies, 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 Tamarix disrupts the structure and stability of North American native plant communities and degrades native wildlife habitat by outcompeting and replacing native plant species, salinizing soils, monopolizing 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 water than native species (Anderson, 1996,1998) it has also been shown that large dense stands of Tamarix do consume more water than equivalent stands of native Cottonwoods (Sala 1996). There is an active and ongoing debate as to when Tamarix can out-compete native plants and if it is actively displacing native plants or it just taking advantage of disturbance by removal of natives by humans and changes in flood regimes (Cooper 1999) (Cooper 2003) (Everitt 1980)(Everitt 1998)(Stromberg 1998). Research on competition between Tamarix seedlings and co-occurring native trees has found that the seedlings are not competitive over a range of environments (Sher, Marshall & Gilbert 2000)(Sher, Marshall & Taylor 2002)(Sher & Marshall 2003), however stands of mature trees effectively prevent native species establishment in the understory, due to low light, elevated salinity, and possibly changes to the soil biota (e.g. (Busch & Smith 1995) and (Taylor & McDaniel 1998). Thus, anthropogenic activities that preferentially favor tamarisk (such as changes to flooding regimes) are associated with infestation (Shafroth, Stromberg & Patten 2000) (Merritt & Cooper 2000) (Horton, Kolb & Hart 2001). To date, 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), and are projected by some to spread well beyond the current range (Morisette 2006).
[edit] Miscellaneous
In Genesis 21:33, Abraham is recorded to have "planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba". He had built a well there earlier.
In a campaign in the computer game, Age of Mythology, the head of Osiris is said to be hidden inside a great Tamarisk tree.
Note on Tamarix Bengal: There is largest seabeach of the world remain in the district of Cox,s bazar of Bangladesh. This seabeach has been planted Tamarix. It creates a natural beauty as well as protects beach from the tidal attacs. In Bangladesh this sort of Tamarix tree has acquired a new style and feature absorbing local weather and land. I enquired Tamarix Indica but no explanation found whether it contained any narration. So I proposed this that Tamarix prevails around the 120 Kilometer Area of Bay of Bengal especially in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh may please be named as Tamarix Bengal. (Muhammad Ashraful Islam):
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008) |
- 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.
- Gilbert (2000), “Competition between native Populus deltoides and invasive Tamarix ramosissima and the implications of reestablishing flooding disturbance.”, Conservation Biology 14: 1744-1754.
- Sher (2002), “Spatial partitioning within southwestern floodplains: patterns of establishment of native Populus and Salix in the presence of invasive, non-native Tamarix.”, Ecological Applications 12: 760-772.
- Sher (2003), “Competition between native and exotic floodplain tree species across water regimes and soil textures.”, American Journal of Botany 90: 413-422.
- Bush (1995), “Mechanisms associated with decline of woody species in riparian ecosystems of the southwestern U.S.”, Ecological Monographs 65: 347-370.
- Taylor (1998), “Restoration of saltcedar (Tamarix sp.)-infested floodplains on the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.”, Weed Technology 12: 345-352.
- Shafroth (2000), “Woody riparian vegetation response to different alluvial water table regimes.”, Western North American Naturalist 60: 66-76.
- Meritt (2000), “Riparian vegetation and channel change in response to river regulation: A comparative study of regulated and unregulated streams in the Green River Basin, USA.”, Regulated Rivers: Research and Management 16: 543-564.
- Horton (2001), “Responses of riparian trees to interannual variation in ground water depth in a semi-arid river basin”, Plant, Cell and Environment 24: 293-304.
