Tamaricaceae (Tamarisk Family)

Introduced shrubs or trees with scale-like leaves. Minute flowers in plumelike inflorescence. A shrubby species is the common one in the region.

Tamarix ramosissimaL. Salt Cedar. (Plate 6.232) A deciduous shrub, usually with many stems up to 10 ft (2.6 m) high. The bark is dull reddish brown. Twigs and branchlets are covered with fine, scale-like leaves. Flowers are in numerous, slender racemes, mostly 3/8–3 in (1.5–7 cm) long, 1/8 in (3–4 mm) wide, spreading on terminal branchlets. The minute individual flowers are five-petaled. Seeds have terminal tufts of fine hairs. This very aggressive, weedy shrub is extremely water-greedy. It has become a serious threat to springs and seeps, especially those low in the White-Inyo Range facing Owens Valley, where there is a widespread infestation. The windblown seeds readily become established in any moist spot. Flower: Pale to deep pink.

Distribution. Springs and seeps or other moist places; Desert Scrub, up to 6,000 ft (1,829 m).