Tamarisk can grow in many different substrates from below sea level to about 2100 m elevation (Hoddenbach 1990), although it grows mostly on fine-textured soils (Everitt 1980). Tamarisk is a facultative phreatophyte (Turner 1974), meaning that it uses but does not depend on ground water.

Tamarisk occurs in areas where its roots can reach the water table, such as floodplains, along irrigation ditches and on lake shores. Plants usually grow where the depth to ground water does not exceed 3 - 5 m.

Tamarisk forms dense thickets where the ground water lies from 1.5 - 6 m below the soil surface (Horton et al. 1960). Where ground water is deeper than 6 m, plants form an open shrubland (Horton and Campbell 1974). Tamarisks have a wide tolerance of saline or alkaline soils (Robinson 1965). Carmen and Brotherson (1980) found that sites with tamarisk in Utah had higher soil salinity and pH than sites without tamarisk.

Brotherson and Winkel (1986) identified the major factors that contribute to tamarisk success as alkaline soils, available soil moisture, and sufficient disturbance of native vegetation to facilitate tamarisk invasion. Everitt (1980) stated that ideal conditions for first-year survival for tamarisk seedlings are on gently sloping riverbanks, or sandbars and siltbars where water levels slowly recede during the period of seed fall.

Only Counter Below

Free Counter