Saltcedar or Tamarix chinensis

Saltcedar or Tamarix chinesis
Tamarisks are extremely invasive in riparian communities, often nearly completely replacing native vegetation with impenetrable thickets. They are extremely competitive against native vegetation because they use much of the water. They also gather salt in their foliage, and where flooding does not flush out soil salts the leaf litter increases the salinity of soil surfaces. Dense stands of saltcedars support lesser biodiversity than the natural communities they displace.

Saltcedar displaces native vegetation, such as willows and cottonwoods, in riparian ecosystems, and is generally less valuable to wildlife than the native communities that it replaces. Dense stands of tamarisk have caused local flooding by impeding water flow at high water stages. It also decreases the available water to other plants by having deep roots that can tap into ground water more efficiently than native plants. Saltcedar trees need large amounts of water to grow, thus the presence of a dense stand of trees can actually lower the local water table.

A secondary effect of tamarisk invasion is the increased frequency of fire in impacted areas. Areas with this species are more prone to fire because tamarisk contributes to a heavy fuel load on the ground beneath them. The fire tolerance of saltcedar coupled with the fire intolerance of many native shrubs effectively leads to saltcedar dominance in a relatively short period of time.
5N4A9195