Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text

Keep Winberley Beautiful

This week the son of one of my good friends called to alert me to a tree he had seen growing in the landscaped area of one of our major grocery stores. The young man was from The Rio Grande Valley. He identified this tree as a Saltcedar (Tamarix pentandra). I had neither seen or heard of it. His concern was that this is an extremely invasive tree and he wanted to warn us that this was not a desirable tree for the Wimberley area. Since I was unfamiliar with it, I looked it up online and in my collection of tree books. Then I drove down to see if I could identify the tree and confirm its identity.

He was absolutely correct. I would like to quote directly from “Trees of Texas, Field Guide” by Stan Tekiela.

“Large shrub to small tree with a single or multiple trunks, both forms with slender arching branches, irregular spreading crown.” Stan notes that this tree “resembles junipers, but is not a conifer, lacking cones. An attractive tree along most rivers, washes and other wet places. There are several species, all similar; thus, much confusion occurs when identifying. All species are non-native and have spread across the Southwest. …Forms thick, impenetrable thickets that crowd out and out-compete native species for precious water resources. Eradication programs across the Southwest remove and replace this species with native trees and shrubs.” Two of my other tree books had similar descriptions.

The young man said that this tree had indeed spread into the rivers, creeks and other waterways of the Rio Grande Valley and he was concerned that once these trees seed out, they could do the same for our area, especially if they got near our waterways. For this reason, I wanted to write this article and help spread the word. If you recognize this tree, please consider letting others know its habits so that they, too, might want to eliminate Salt Cedars before they become major pests in our environment.

Written by Martha Knies

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054