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.