''Tamarix usneoides'', locally known as wild tamarisk, is a twiggy shrub or small evergreen tree that grows in saline habitats, semi-deserts and karroid areas in southern Africa. It has a short trunk, thin branches usually growing from ground level, tiny scale-like leaves and spikes of creamy-white flowers.

Description

''Tamarix usneoides'' is a shrub or small tree, up to tall, with slender branches and an upright form. It usually branches from the base and often grows in clumps. The trunk is greyish-brown and rough, with longitudinal fissures. The roots are designed to harvest water from a large area; the

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

may descend to , and the

adventitious root Important structures in plant development are buds, shoots, roots, leaves, and flowers; plants produce these tissues and structures throughout their life from meristems located at the tips of organs, or between mature tissues. Thus, a living pla ...

s spread out for on either side. The greyish-green leaves are minute and scale-like, overlapping each other and clasping the stem. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

s can be loose or dense sprays of small flowers in the leaf axils or forming

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the sh ...

s at the tips of the shoots. Each individual flower is small and creamy-white, with a persistent

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

. The fruits are capsules containing many tiny seeds.

Distribution and habitat

''Tamarix usneoides'' is native to Namibia and the southwestern part of South Africa, where it occurs in the provinces of

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

and Eastern Cape. It inhabits semi-desert and

karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ...

habitats, riverbanks of dry or temporary rivers, salty alluvial flatlands, areas with subterranean brackish water, dune slacks and rocky deserts, at altitudes of up to . In saline locations it often grows in association with the shrub '' Suaeda fruticosa'' and the grass ''

Odyssea paucinervis ''Odyssea paucinervis'' is a species of African plants in the grass family. The genus is named after the ancient Greek tale the "Odyssey", in allusion to the long journey the type species has taken through nine genera before settling in this one. ...

''. In the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...

it occurs beside ephemeral watercourses where it grows with '' Faidherbia albida'' and species of ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending int ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q13034175 usneoides Flora of South Africa Taxa named by Alexander von Bunge