Tamarix africana Poir.
T. font-queri Emberger & Maire, T. getula Batt., T. ludibunda Maire, T. malenconiana Maire, T. speciosa Ball, T. tingitana Pau
Eng.: African tamarisk. Spa.: Taray, taraje, atarfe. Fre.: Tamaris d’Afrique. Ara.: Tarfa, ttarfa, ariche, tarfaya, fersig, lfersig, afersi, tamayet. Tam.: Tabarakat, taberka, ettarfa, amemaï, hamammecht, tazemat.
Small tree or shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 8(12) m in height, irregular in appearance, with sparse foliage. Trunk ± erect, with fissured brown or brown-dark bark, at least in older specimens. Branches slightly or not fissured, very dark, black or black-purple. Branchlets of the current year green, red or purple, that soon darken. Leaves (1.5-3.5 mm) alternate, sessile, squamiform, triangular-lanceolate, sharply pointed, semiclasping, applied, without stipules. Leaf blade with small salt secreting glands, ± visible depending on the salinity of habitat. Racemes 20-60(80) × 6-9 mm, densely covered with flowers. Rachis sometimes papillose. Racemes are born sessile directly onto the woody, blackish branchlets from previous years. The base of the racemes is densely covered with scarious bracts. Flowers pentamerous with 5 petals (2-3.3 × 1.2 mm) ovate-elliptic to triangular-ovate, white; sepals 5, greenish, unequal, and stamens 5. Bracts triangular to narrowly triangular-oblong, shorter or longer than the calyx. Staminal disk synlophic. Fruit a capsule, ovoid, 4-7 mm, which when open it looks like cotton due to the tufts of white hairs on the seeds.
Flowering:
February to June.
Fruiting:
April to August.
Habitat:
On ± humid terrain, such as along riverbanks, lakes and other wetlands, sometimes in small dunes. In arid to subhumid bioclimate, saharan to thermomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Western Europe, North Africa and Macaronesia. In North Africa it grows scattered throughout almost the entire Mediterranean region and the northern area of the Sahara, from SW Morocco to NW Libya.
Observations:
Polymorphic species with two varieties in North Africa: var. africana with racemes 20-70 × 6-9 mm, petals ovate or triangular-ovate and bracts ± equal in length to the calyx, and the var. fluminensis (Maire) Baum, with larger racemes (60-80 × 5 mm), obovate petals and bracts much longer than the calyx.
Conservation status:
A common and widespread species. It is not considered threatened. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Beech, Rivers & Harvey-Brown, 2018).