Salt cedar

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Salt cedar flowers

Salt cedar inflorescences

Salt cedar

Salt cedar

Salt cedar

Salt cedar leaves

Morphology

Stem

Erect, branching, glabrous; branches slender, upright or spreading; bark of young trees red with yellowish leaf scars; bark of mature trees brown, furrowed or ridged.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, sessile; base narrow, brown; lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, scale-like, overlapping; blade thick, gray-green; margins entire; tip sharp-pointed; surface with salt-excreting glands.

Inflorescence

Raceme, spike-like, 3/5 to 3 inches long, 1/8 to 1/6 inch wide; flowers many; bracts triangular-trowel shaped; margins more or less minutely-toothed; tips pointed.

Flower

Sepals 5, not united at base, narrowly trowel-shaped, to 1/25 inch long, green; margins irregularly-toothed; petals 5, alternating with sepals, egg-shaped, 1/25 to 1/15 inch long, pink to white or reddish-lavender; stamens as many or more than petals; filaments inserted under disk near margin.

Fruit

Capsule, cone-shaped, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, narrowed into beak; seeds many, minute, tuft of hairs at tip.

Ecology

Habitat

Stream banks, lake edges, river flood plains, salt marshes, roadsides, disturbed areas; sandy soils; will tolerate saline and alkaline soils.

Distribution

West 3/4 of Kansas

Reproduction

Seeds spread by wind and water.

Practical Information

Forage Value

Little forage value.

Uses

Provides shore stabilization. Game birds, song birds, morning doves, and mammals use it for cover. Rabbits eat the bark of young trees during the winter.

Additional Notes