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Tamarix nilotica
Tamarix nilotica, the Nile tamarisk is a species of shrub or small tree in the tamarisk family. It is native to arid parts of Greece, the Middle East, and North and East Africa, particularly areas with high salinity. It forms part of the dune stabilisation process.
Tamarix nilotica has a wide distribution from Greece through the Arabian Peninsula into the north and north-east of Africa. It is native to Southeastern Europe (Greece, Crete), Western Asia (the East Aegean Islands, the Palestine region, Sinai), the Arabian Peninsula (the Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen), Northern Africa (Egypt, Libya), Northeast Tropical Africa (Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan), and East Tropical Africa (Kenya, Tanzania). In the Nile Valley in Egypt, this tree grows beside the river and the irrigation channels. It can form dense thickets in suitable locations. It is also found as part of a salt-tolerant community in saline depressions in the Western Desert, and on coastal dunes where its deep roots are able to extract saline water from the subsoil; it has salt-excreting glands to rid itself of the excess salts that would otherwise accumulate.
Tamarix nilotica can help stabilise sand and may form nabkhas as part of the dune forming process. Wind blown sand comes to rest at the foot of the shrub and accumulates, gradually creating a hummock; the shrub's extensive root system continues to extract moisture from the underlying saline substrate and grows at a faster rate than the mound rises.
African tamarisk · Athel tamarisk · Canary Island tamarisk · Five-stamen tamarisk · Tamarisk · Tamarisk · Tamarix gennessarensis · Kashgar Tamarisk · Tamarix leptopetala · Smallflower tamarisk · Pink Tamarisk · Tamarix senegalensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tamarix nilotica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
