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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Chinese Tamarisk
Tamarix chinensis Loureiro

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Tamarisk (Tamaricaceae)
Flowering: May-September
Field Marks: All species of Tamarix are very much alike. This one differs from the rest by its sepals not being toothed and more or less united at the base.
Habitat: Floodplains of rivers, disturbed areas.
Habit: Tree up to 15 feet tall.
Stems: Trunks and twigs brown to black, smooth.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, nearly scale-like, up to 1/8 inch long.
Flowers: Many crowded into racemes up to 3 inches long; flowers borne on stalks about 1/16 inch long, subtended by a bract about 1/16 inch long.
Sepals: 5, green, more or less united at the base, up to 1/16 inch long.
Petals: 5, pink, free from each other, up to 1/16 inch long.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary superior.
Fruits: Capsules ellipsoid, smooth: each seed with a tuft of hairs at the tip.
Notes: This species is native to China and Japan, but has escaped from cultivation into the floodplains of rivers and disturbed areas. Birds reportedly use this species for nesting.

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Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima)

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/5/tamachin.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:26:04 EST
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