Salt Cedar
Tamarix ramosissima
Tamaricaceae (Tamarisk Family)
▲ mature plant in riparian area of southwest Kansas
▲▼foliage and flowers
▲▼ young, mature plants in southwest Kansas
▲▼ flowering plant (above) and flowers (below)
Salt Cedar: (pp. 540-541, Weeds of the Great Plains; not in Weeds of the Northeast)
· Large shrub to multi-branched small tree with small gray-green, scale-like leaves (like am evergreen cedar or arbor-vitae shrub)
· Produces panicles of pinkish-cream flowers (quite showy) from mid summer to fall, followed by very tiny, hair-tufted, wind & water dispersed seeds
· Introduced as a drought &heat tolerant ornamental, has spread to range and pasture areas in the central and western states as an invasive and environmentally-threatening plant
· Can consume large amounts of water, drying down streams and rivers, and is quite salt tolerant
· One of central & western U.S. worst weeds; a noxious weed in many states; but still available as ornamental in eastern U.S.