ABSTRACT
Frankineaceae’s status as a sister family, within which there are several species native to North America (Gaskin et al, 2004). As a group, members of the genus Tamarix are estimated to be the third most common woody species along rivers in this region, and are the second most dominant in terms of cover (Friedman et al, 2005). Tamarix has recently been estimated to cover several hundred thousand hectares in North America, from northern Mexico to Montana and from Kansas to California (Nagler et al, 2010). Although it has naturalized as far as the eastern coast and North Dakota (Figure 11.1), Tamarix has only achieved dominance in the warmer and drier regions of the US (NRCS, 2010). This may change under predicted scenarios of climate change, however (Bradley et al, 2009).
