Pronounciation: TA-ma-rix a-FIL-la

Hardiness zones
Sunset 5, 6, 8-10, 12-14
USDA 8-11

Landscape Use: Wind breaks, shade from the intense desert sun, oasis effect, shade tree for large parks, desert road waysides where there is no water, shade for highway rest areas and low income residential neighborhoods.

Form & Character: Strongly upright, sturdy, rugged, massive, yet graceful and pendulous.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, woody, narrowleaf perennial tree, very fast when young eventually reaching 60-feet tall with equal spread. Large branches that typical spread, trunk deeply ridged and furrowed, thick grayish brown phellum.

Foliage/Texture: Small, appressed, glaucous-colored foliage, juniper like; fine texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Hermaphroditic with plumes of lavender pink flowers during cool season; fruit inconspicuous.

Seasonal Color: Cool season flowers

Temperature: Very tolerant of desert heat, especially around water.

Light: Full sun, shade intolerant.

Soil: Tolerant of a wide range of soil moisture contents.

Watering: Water sparingly, only as needed. Once large and established, it will often "find" its own source of water in urban landscape parks and waysides.

Pruning: Elevate canopy base and remove basal trunk suckers and water sprouts.

Propagation: Seed

Disease and Pests: None

Additional comments: Tamarix means 'without leaves'. This is a genus that has a long standing symbiosis with humans (It goes where people go - which means just about everywhere these days). Athel tree is very graceful, yet too massive and messy for most of today's urban landscape planting sites.

Special taxonomic clarification: Pay attention!! This species of tamarisk tends to not naturalize in the southwestern United States and should not be confused (though often is) with its close and HIGHLY INVASIVE deciduous shrub cousin, Tamarix ramosissima (also known as Tamarisk chinensis) that has successfully naturalized in irrigated urban and riparian areas throughout the western United States.