Species
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Tamarix aphylla (L.) H.Karst.

Athel Pine, Athel tamarisk, Athel tamarisk, Saltcedar

Climate known 82 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The athel tamarisk, also known as the athel tree or simply athel, is the largest known species of Tamarix, with heights up to 18 metres (59 ft). It is an evergreen flowering tree, native across North, East, and Central Africa, through the Middle East, and into parts of Western and Southern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tamarix aphylla”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Tamarix

The genus Tamarix is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tamaris River in Hispania Tarraconensis (Spain).

Text from Wikipedia, “Tamarix”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Tamaricaceae
Described by
(L.) H.Karst.
Native to
Algeria, Egypt, Libya +25
Wild records
87 in range· 33 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
112mm/yr
no wet month · peak Jan 22 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–50DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no rainy season to read (112 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 112 mm a year, wettest January at 22 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Tamarix aphylla (L.) Lanza; Tamarix aphylla (L.) Warb.; Tamarix articulata Vahl; Tamarix faras Edgew.; Tamarix furas Buch.-Ham. and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no rainy season to read (112 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

Rain at the habitat is 112 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as November to April. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 112 mm a year, wettest January at 22 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

112 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month January at 22 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 31 mm to 569 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 21 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.1 °C to 15.4 °C), warmest day 35.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 45 to 54% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Jan to 35 °C in Jul; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 112 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 73 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 22–50RH 45–54 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 73 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 15–2319 / 16–2623 / 19–2928 / 24–3331 / 27–3835 / 29–4135 / 31–4235 / 31–4033 / 30–3829 / 27–3323 / 21–2819 / 16–25
Night °C7 / 4–158 / 5–1712 / 8–1915 / 12–2218 / 15–2521 / 18–2723 / 20–2823 / 20–2722 / 18–2618 / 15–2313 / 10–189 / 6–16
Rain mm22 / 2–12821 / 1–10222 / 5–577 / 1–313 / 1–221 / 0–111 / 0–121 / 0–131 / 0–186 / 1–2910 / 2–6517 / 3–99
DLI23 / 20–3230 / 26–3837 / 34–4345 / 42–4849 / 47–5150 / 46–5249 / 39–5146 / 39–4841 / 38–4333 / 29–3826 / 23–3322 / 19–30
RH %54 / 45–5751 / 42–5749 / 39–5646 / 36–5545 / 32–5746 / 30–5847 / 30–6049 / 32–6150 / 34–6050 / 36–5951 / 44–5553 / 45–57

Each figure is the median across the 73 grid cells holding the 82 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1181:4289 (30.925, 34.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 73 distinct grid cells holding the 82 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1181:4289 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.00_34.375, lapse-corrected +43 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 240 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlgeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Sinai, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Pakistan· introduced: Spain, Canary Is., Namibia, Queensland, Phoenix Is., Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.455, 35.388 · in the densest population, 42 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 87 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 33 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3083 km away. 1558 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 87 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphyllaTamarix aphylla

Photographs: (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jiro Iguchi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Tamarix aphylla, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

LOCALIZATION AND SECRETION OF SALT BY THE SALT GLANDS OF Tamarix aphylla
William W. Thomson, Wade L. Berry, L. L. Liu (1969) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ultrastructural features of the salt gland of Tamarix aphylla L.
William W. Thomson, Ling Ling Liu (1967) · Planta
Impact of solvent extraction type on total polyphenols content and biological activity from tamarix aphylla (l.) Karst.
Zohra Mohammedi, Fawzia Atik (2011) · Dépôt Institutionnel de lUniversité de Tlemcen
Status and implications of the invasion of tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla) on the Finke River, Northern Territory, Australia.
G. F. Griffin, Mark Stafford‐Smith, Stephen Morton, Grant Allan (1989) · Journal of Environmental Management
CHARACTERISTICS OF SALTS SECRETED BY TAMARIX APHYLLA
Wade L. Berry (1970) · American Journal of Botany
Excretion of ions (Cd2+, Li+, Na+ and Cl−) by Tamarix aphylla
J. Hagemeyer, Y. Waisel (1988) · Physiologia Plantarum
Physiological response of diverse halophytes to high salinity through ionic accumulation and ROS scavenging
Ashwani Kumar, Ashwani Kumar, Anita Mann, Arvind Kumar (2021) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
Light- and electron-microscopical studies on the structure of salt glands of Tamarix aphylla L.
Carmela Shimony, A. Fahn (1968) · Journal of the Linnean Society of London Botany
Metabolite profiling of polyphenols in the Tunisian plant Tamarix aphylla (L.) Karst.
Adel Mahfoudhi, Francesco Pio Prencipe, Zine Mighri, Federica Pellati (2014) · Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis
Green dyeing process of modified cotton fibres using natural dyes extracted from Tamarix aphylla (L.) Karst. leaves
Noureddine Baaka, Adel Mahfoudhi, Wafa Haddar, Mohamed Farouk Mhenni (2016) · Natural Product Research
Ethnopharmacological Assessment of Medicinal Plants Used against Livestock Infections by the People Living around Indus River
Sakina Mussarat, Rahila Amber, Akash Tariq, Muhammad Adnan (2014) · BioMed Research International

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Tamarix 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 58 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.