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Tamarix usneoides; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge

Abiqua Tree; Abiquas-Yellowwood; Atheltree; Dabbie

Tamaricaceae · Angola, Cape Provinces +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, E.Mey.

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Tamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTamarix usneoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.6°C
Record low 2.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
83mm
No month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–56DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
67 mm of rain in the median year, under the rule's 120 mm, so no rainy season is read; the cooler six months are November to April (May to October at the habitat). rain and temperature rules, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Tamarix usneoides, locally known as wild tamarisk, is a twiggy shrub or small evergreen tree that grows in saline habitats, semi-deserts and karroid areas in southern Africa, ranging from Angola through Namibia to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It has a short trunk, thin branches usually growing from ground level, tiny scale-like leaves and spikes of creamy-white flowers.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tamarix usneoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tamarix", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

Rain at the habitat is 67 mm in the median year (across the grid cells of the range, 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 May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

67 mm in the median year at the habitat. Wettest month March at 15 mm, driest months (4 at 1 mm); 7 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 24 mm to 221 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 83 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 67 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 56 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 57).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.6 °C, the absolute minimum 2.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.5 °C to 12.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.1 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 45 to 51% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -360 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Tamarix usneoides through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and December, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 9.2 °C; 67 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°44.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter01020304050mm rainDLI 27–56RH 45–51%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 140 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C32 / 26–3532 / 26–3532 / 27–3430 / 25–3226 / 22–3023 / 19–2723 / 19–2724 / 20–2927 / 22–3230 / 23–3231 / 24–3332 / 25–35
Night °C17 / 15–2018 / 16–2118 / 16–2016 / 13–1913 / 10–1610 / 6–139 / 6–1310 / 7–1211 / 9–1413 / 11–1515 / 13–1716 / 14–19
Rain mm9 / 2–3414 / 4–4415 / 5–4111 / 3–212 / 1–111 / 0–81 / 0–61 / 0–61 / 0–73 / 1–115 / 1–124 / 1–17
DLI54 / 50–5549 / 46–5043 / 42–4536 / 33–3831 / 26–3427 / 22–3129 / 23–3234 / 29–3742 / 39–4448 / 47–5054 / 51–5456 / 52–57
RH %51 / 43–6151 / 44–6149 / 45–6048 / 44–5545 / 42–5345 / 41–5245 / 41–5246 / 40–5347 / 40–5847 / 41–5948 / 41–5949 / 41–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 140 grid cells holding the 225 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2361:3943 (-28.075, 17.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 140 distinct grid cells holding 225 of the 225 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2361:3943 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.00_16.875, lapse-corrected -360 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 206 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAngola, Cape Provinces, Namibia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-22.71, 14.96 · in the densest population, 276 records (81% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 339 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 225 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 152 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 561 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 114 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7732261 (Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge): Kew's file holds it as Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge (accepted); 119 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 339 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tamarix usneoides, photograph 1did not loadTamarix usneoides, photograph 2did not loadTamarix usneoides, photograph 3did not loadTamarix usneoides, photograph 4did not loadTamarix usneoides, photograph 5did not loadTamarix usneoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Euclea pseudebenus Euclea pseudebenus Black Ebony Photo: CC0, author not stated Albuca recurva Asparagaceae Euphorbia lignosa Euphorbia lignosa Spike Milkbush Photo: CC0, author not statedAdenolobus garipensis Adenolobus garipensis Butterfly-leaf Photo: CC BY-SA, Dave UEuphorbia virosa Euphorbia virosa Eyao Naboom Photo: CC BY-SA, Dave UMonsonia luederitziana Monsonia luederitziana Geraniaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Tamarix 16 in the reference

Tamarix africana Tamarix africana African tamarisk Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat HinczewskiTamarix aphylla Tamarix aphylla Athel pine Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts Tamarix aralensis Russian tamarisk Tamarix aucheriana Tamarix aucheriana Tamaricaceae Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Tamarix boveana Tamarix boveana Tamaricaceae Photo: CC BY, A. BarraTamarix canariensis Tamarix canariensis Canary Island tamarisk Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonTamarix chinensis Tamarix chinensis Chinese tamarisk Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadTamarix dalmatica Tamarix dalmatica Tamaricaceae Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Tamarix gallica Tamarix gallica Tamarisk Photo: CC BY, Patrick HackerTamarix gracilis Tamarix gracilis Tamaricaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal Magsar Tamarix hohenackeri Tamaricaceae Tamarix nilotica Tamarix nilotica Tamaricaceae Photo: CC BY, Robert Hoehndorf all 17 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Tamarix angolensis; Tamarix austroafricana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Tamaricaceae
Described by
E.Mey. ex Bunge
Native to
Angola, Cape Provinces, Namibia
Wild records
339 in range · 152 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3612952 is Tamarix usneoides E.Mey.; the page links Kew's Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 119 records of GBIF's key 7732261, Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge (Kew's file holds it as Tamarix usneoides E.Mey. ex Bunge (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.00_16.875, lapse-corrected -360 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 18 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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