Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb.
- Family: Tamarisk (Tamaricaceae)
- Flowering: March-April
- Field Marks: The 5 sepals of this species are toothed, distinguishing this tamarisk from all others.
- Habitat: Moist areas in the desert.
- Habit: Shrub or small tree to 20 feet tall; bark reddish brown.
- Stems: Erect, spreading, smooth.
- Leaves: Alternate, scale-like, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, blue-green, sessile, up to 1/6 inch long, smooth.
- Flowers: Many borne in racemes that are arranged in open panicles, each raceme up to 2 inches long, each flower on a very short stalk; bracts about as long as or longer than the flower stalks.
- Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, up to 1/16 inch long, toothed along the edges.
- Petals: 5, pink, free from each other, obovate, 1/12-1/8 inch long.
- Stamens: 5, attached beneath a disk in the flower.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3.
- Fruits: Capsule narrowed into a beak, longer than the petals, with tuft of soft bristles at the tip.
- Notes: This species in the past has been known as T. pentandra. It is native of Europe and Asia. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental.
Previous Species -- Chinese Tamarisk (Tamarix chinensis)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
