'' Haloxylon ammodendron'', variously called the saxaul (), black saxaul, also spelled sacsaoul or saksaul is a plant belonging to the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, maki ...

. "Saksaul" is a common Turkic word that entered Russian through Kazakh.

Description

The saxaul ranges in size from a large shrub to a small tree, , rarely tall. It has a brown trunk up to in diameter. The wood is heavy and coarse and the bark is spongy and water-soaked. The branches of the current year are green; older branches are brown, or gray to white. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are reduced to very small cusp-like scales, so that the plant appears nearly leafless. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s consist of short lateral shoots borne on stems of the previous year. The flowers are bisexual or male, very small, as long as or shorter than the

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

eoles. The flowering period is from March to April. In fruit, the perianth segments develop spreading pale brown or white wings. The diameter of the winged fruit is about . The seed is in diameter. The fruiting period is October to November.

Taxonomy

Haloxylon ammodendron as Anabasis ammodendron cropped

The species was first published in 1829 by

Carl Anton von Meyer Carl Anton von Meyer (in Russian: Карл Анто́нович фон Ме́йер, ''Karl Antonovich von Meyer'') (1 April 1795 – 24 February 1855) was a Germans, German, Russified botanist and explorer. Meyer was born in Vitebsk. He received ...

as ''Anabasis ammodendron'' C.A.Meyer. In 1851

Alexander Bunge Alexander Georg von Bunge (; – ) was a Russian botanist. He is best remembered for scientific expeditions into Asia and especially Siberia. Early life and education Bunge was born under the name Alexander Andreevič von Bunge on in Kyiv as ...

combined it to genus ''Haloxylon'' as ''Haloxylon ammodendron'' (C.A.Meyer) Bunge. Synonyms are: ''Arthrophytum ammodendron'' (C.A.Meyer) Litw., ''Arthrophytum haloxylon'' Litw., ''Haloxylon pachycladum'' M.Pop., and ''Haloxylon aphyllum'' (Minkw.) Iljin.. A related saxaul species is '' Haloxylon persicum'' (or white saxaul).

Distribution and habitat

The saxaul is distributed in the lowlands of Central Asiaincluding southern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

, western

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, west

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, namely

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

and

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

. It also occurs incidentally in the west of Kirghizstan and

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. It is a

psammophyte A psammophyte is a plant that grows in sandy and often unstable soils. Psammophytes are commonly found growing on beaches, deserts, and sand dunes. Because they thrive in these challenging or inhospitable habitats, psammophytes are considered extr ...

, and grows in sandy deserts, on sand dunes, and in

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

up to above sea level. In Central Asia it often forms 'saxaul forests', in Iran it usually grows more scattered.

Ecology

'' Turcmenigena varentzovi'' (saxaul longhorn beetle, Varentsov's longhorn beetle) is a pest of the black saxaul tree in

, and

. Dark cone-like galls are often found on the plants. A parasitic plant, '' Cistanche deserticola'', that grows on the roots of the saxaul is prized in

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence of effectiveness or ...

as the '

ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus ''Panax'', such as South China ginseng (''Panax notoginseng, P. notoginseng''), Korean ginseng (''Panax ginseng, P. ginseng''), and American ginseng (''American ginseng, P. quinquefol ...

of the desert'.

Uses

Saxaul is planted on a large scale in the

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

of arid areas in China. Being highly drought-resistant, it has played an important role in the establishment of shelter belts and the fixation of sand dunes as a counter to

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

. The thick bark of the saxaul tree stores water. Quantities of the bark may be pressed for drinking water, making saxaul an important source of water in arid regions where it grows. Saxaul is a traditional Turkmen firewood. It was heavily harvested in some provinces in Turkmenistan as it was used for fuel to fight the 2008 Central Asia energy crisis. In the Gobi desert, the saxaul is often the only kind of tree found. It used to be, and in some place still is, the only kind of wood that

nomads Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, Nomadic pastoralism, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and Merchant, trader nomads. In the twentieth century, ...

can use for heating and cooking. When the Russian Imperial Navy brought the first steamships into the land-locked

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

, the local Governor-General Vasily Perovsky ordered the commander of Fort Aralsk to collect "as large as possible supply" of saxaul wood (''Anabasis saxaul'', in the source) for use by the new steamships on their maiden navigation of 1851. Unfortunately for the Russian Naval budget (but probably quite fortunately for the saxaul itself), saxaul wood turned out to be not particularly suitable for steamships, as the hard and resinous wood was difficult to cut, and knotty and crooked saxaul logs could not be stored space-efficiently in the ships' holds. Therefore, starting from 1852, the Aral Flotilla switched to

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

as its main fuel, despite the remarkable costs of shipping it by

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Caravan (trail ...

from

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

. The Uzbek government has also planted the trees in the Aral Desert to help prevent the spread of toxic salts left behind when the sea dried up, which have caused numerous health problems for people living on the perimeter of the desert.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3851831 Amaranthaceae Trees of Western Asia Trees of China Taxa named by Carl Anton von Meyer Least concern biota of Asia Plants described in 1829