Tamarix arborea (Sieber ex Ehrenb.) Bunge
T. gallica var. arborea Sieber ex Ehrenb.
Eng.: Tamarisk. Spa.: Taray, taraje, atarfe. Fre.: Tamaris. Ara.: Tarfa, tarfaya, fersig, afersi.
Small tree or shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 8(12) m in height, irregular appearance, with sparse foliage. Trunk ± erect, with fissured brown or brown-dark bark, at least in older specimens. Branchlets of the current year papillose. Leaves (2-3 mm) alternate, sessile, squamiform, triangular-lanceolate, with an acute tip, amplexicaul or subamplexicaul, longer than wide. Leaf blade with small salt secreting glands, ± visible depending on the salinity of habitat. Racemes 20-60 × 4-5 mm, densely covered with flowers. Flowers pentamerous, with 5 elliptic petals (1.5 × 1.75 mm). Staminal disk paralophic. Fruit an ovoid capsule.
Flowering:
September to April and rarely May or August.
Fruiting:
October to April.
Habitat:
Along temporary water courses, margins of brackish rivers, oases, shores of the Red Sea, dunes and wadis.
Distribution:
Saharan-Arabian. North Africa and the Middle East (Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia).
Conservation status:
A common and widespread species. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.