Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Tamarix chinensis [Tamarix ramosissima] [Tamarix pentandra]
- Family
- Tamaricaceae
- CommonName
- salt-cedar, Chinese tamarisk, five-stamen tamarisk
- Presence
- YES
- Status
- exotic, noxious
- EarliestDate
- 1952
- LatestDate
- 2024
- Ecosystem
- basin, shrubland, ruderal
- Geobotanical
- UBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Rio Grande, Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Baca
- Other Localities
- Alamosa (town)
- Comments
- In the Watershed salt-cedar is a planted exotic that has escaped and persisted in a few locations, such as on the Gilmore ranch 5.5 air miles NW of Alamosa (1985) or by the road to a former cattle ranch in the Baca NWR (2006, 2012). The earliest record of Tamarix chinensis is the Adams State College campus (1952). A recent observation is between Center and Hooper (Sept 2022, iNaturalist observation #135676789). The latest is beside a seasonal pond in the Upper Basin of Rio Grande Co (Sept 2024—a record that would add the species to that county in BONAP). Tamarix is on Colorado's B list of "noxious weeds." Recently plants have been eradicated at the Monte Vista NWR and the Baca NWR. Still there seems to be little evidence of deleterious invasion of the plant in the Watershed. The story is different in New Mexico, where it can be found in "waterways, arroyos, lakeshores, and similar wetlands and riparian drainages throughout the state" (Allred et al. 2020). It follows the Rio Grande watershed down to the Gulf. Note that distinguishing T. chilensis and T. ramosissima is difficult to begin with and further hampered by widespread hybridization between the two Old World species. Allred et al. (2020) recognize this and for New Mexico specimens subsume T. ramosissima under T. chilensis. So does BONAP for the USA. iNaturalist puts the two species under the "Tamarix chinensis complex." POWO, however, accepts both and shows overlapping distribution in the USA, including Colorado.
- Annotation