Tamarix gallica Seeds | French Tamarisk
LATIN NAME: Tamarix gallica
COMMON NAME: French Tamarisk
Plant Profile
Tamarix gallica is a feathery shrub or small tree of coastal sand and river gravel, and it looks less like a tree than like a cloud of grey-green threads. The leaves are scale-like and pressed against the stem, so the shoot itself does the photosynthesising. The bark is reddish-brown on young wood and turns grey and rough with age.
The flowers are tiny and pink, carried in spikes at the ends of the shoots, and they open over a long period from spring into late summer. The species is native to the western Mediterranean and to the Atlantic coast of France, and it has been planted so widely for windbreaks and for dune stabilisation that its original range is now hard to establish.
Science & Biotechnology
Tamarisk handles salt in a way that few woody plants can. Glands on the leaves secrete salt onto the surface, where it dries into visible crystals that are washed off by rain or fall to the ground beneath. That mechanism keeps the tissue concentration low enough to survive, and it also salinises the soil under the shrub, which suppresses competitors.
The plant is a heavy water user, with roots that reach deep into the water table, and that combination is why it has become a problem in the south-western United States. Tamarisk there, mostly T. ramosissima and its hybrids, lowers water tables, increases fire frequency and salinises flood plains. The leaf beetle Diorhabda carinulata was released as a control agent, and where it established it defoliated stands and reduced cover, though the recovery of native vegetation has been uneven.
Uses & Benefits
The wood is hard and burns hot even when green, and it is used for charcoal and for fencing in its native range. The bark is rich in tannins and was used for tanning leather, and the galls produce a red dye. In some districts a sweet manna is collected from the twigs, a sugary exudate caused by insects.
The tree is planted as a windbreak, as a dune stabiliser and as an ornamental for its feathery texture and pink flowers. In medicine the bark is an astringent, and a decoction was used for diarrhoea and for bleeding, though the tannin content is the whole of the rationale.
Growing from Seed
Seed is short-lived, viable for only a few weeks, and must be sown on moist sand as soon as it is ripe. Cuttings are far easier: take hardwood in winter, push them into damp sand, and most will root without treatment. The plant also suckers from the roots, which is how it holds a dune and how it escapes a garden.
It grows on sand, gravel, clay and salted ground, and it needs full sun and no feeding. It tolerates wind and drought once established, and it tolerates being flooded. The caution is its spread: in a dry climate with water nearby it can colonise a river bank within a decade, and cutting it back encourages regrowth.
Our Take
A useful windbreak and a beautiful texture, and a serious invasive plant in dry regions. Grow it where it already belongs.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow French Tamarisk often pair it with these related subjects: