The World Flora Online

Shrubs or trees, much branched. Young branches usually glabrous; two types of branches present: ligneous growing branches, not deciduous in winter vs. green vegetative branchlets, deciduous in winter. Leaves alternate, sessile, amplexicaul or vaginate, small, scale-like, glabrous, rarely hairy, mostly with salt-secreting glands. Flowers in racemes or panicles, blooming in spring; racemes lateral on growing branches of previous or current year and clustered in terminal panicles, or two types of flowering habits present in some species. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual, 4- or 5(or 6)-merous, usually pedicellate; bract 1. Calyx herbaceous or fleshy, 4- or 5-fid; lobes entire or faintly denticulate. Petals as many as calyx lobes, deciduous or persistent after anthesis. Disk variously shaped, mostly 4- or 5-lobed; lobes entire, or apex retuse or even deeply divided. Stamens 4 or 5, opposite to calyx lobes, or numerous, outer series opposite to calyx lobes; filaments often free, inserted between lobes of disk or at apices of lobes; anthers cordate, versatile, 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent. Pistil consisting of 3 or 4 carpels; ovary mostly conic, many seeded; placentation basal-parietal; styles 3 or 4; stigmas capitate, short. Capsule conic, abaxially 3-septicidal. Seeds numerous, minute; apical awns villous.

Stamens free or connate at the very base Anthers extrorse Seeds with a crest of long hairs at the apex. Anthers extrorse Seeds with a crest of long hairs at the apex.

Stamens 4–5; pet often long-persistent; ovary conic; placentas basal or nearly so; styles 3–4, short-clavate or obovate; fr conic, separating completely into 3 or 4 valves; deciduous shrubs or trees with small, scale-like, often imbricate lvs and numerous small fls in racemes or spikes borne on the old wood or aggregated into a terminal panicle. 50, Old World. Two spp. occasionally escape from cult. in our range, but are scarcely members of our established flora. T. parviflora DC. has 4-merous fls, with the filaments seated on the 4 lobes of the disk. T. chinensis Lour. has 5-merous fls, with the filaments arising from (or just outside) the sinuses of the 5-lobed disk (the disk lobes often emarginate). (T. ramosissima; T. pentandra, an illegitimate name)

Flowers in narrow racemes or spikes Ovary narrowed towards the apex; placentas basal; styles short and thick; stigmas flattened or somewhat concave Seeds with a sessile apical tuft of hairs; endosperm absent. Petals without ligules Stamens free or shortly connate at the base; anthers extrorse Ovary narrowed towards the apex; placentas basal; styles short and thick; stigmas flattened or somewhat concave Seeds with a sessile apical tuft of hairs; endosperm absent. Petals without ligules Stamens free or shortly connate at the base; anthers extrorse

SELECTED REFERENCES Allred, K. W. 2002. Identification and taxonomy of Tamarix (Tamaricaceae) in New Mexico. Desert Pl. 18(2): 26–32. Baum, B. R. 1964. On the vernales-aestivales character in Tamarix and its diagnostic value. Israel J. Bot. 13: 30–35. Baum, B. R. 1967. Introduced and naturalized tamarisks in the United States and Canada. Baileya 15: 19–25. Baum, B. R. 1978. The Genus Tamarix. Jerusalem. Baum, B. R., I. J. Bassett, and C. W. Crompton. 1971. Pollen morphology of Tamarix species and its relationship to the taxonomy of the genus. Pollen & Spores 13: 495–521. Gaskin, J. F. 2002.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves usually sessile, sessile or amplexicaul in T. tetragyna, or sheathing in T. aphylla. antisepalous, sometimes also antipetalous in T. tetragyna; ovary pear-shaped; styles 3(or 4), short. Seeds beaked. x = 12.