# some nice tamarisk & a question about tamarisk



## phinds (Apr 8, 2017)

Fellow over at Wood Talk Online sent me some tamarisk recently. Nice stuff. Here are some pics. My question about tamarisk is, how big has anyone seen it get DBH ? I notice that I have a note on the site that someone said he had seen it get to 5 feet DBH but I'm now dubious about that although I have no reason the think he was misrepresenting anything, so ... anyone ever seen any that big?

All of the pics can be seen at http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/tamarisk.htm




 
10" long and 8" long bole sections




the sample pieces I cut from them




A flat cut sample



 
A quartersawn sample



 
Sample with boxed pith



 
One of my 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeups.

Reactions: Like 5


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## vegas urban lumber (Apr 8, 2017)

in vegas where they are on residential properties, either receiving water or reach the ground water table with their roots. i have personally cut them at 48" trunk diameter. most of them at that size are 50 plus years old. in the desert they typically don't get much over about 24" diameter at the biggest. here are some pictures indicative of the medium sized ones in vegas. on the last property demo where we encountered them i kept a 36" diameter log at 7 ft long that weighed in excess of 3000 lbs. the others were too big for my 36" mill and had to be cut to under 4 foot lengths so the bobcat could get them in the dumpster

Reactions: Like 1


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## phinds (Apr 8, 2017)

Great information. Thanks.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## barry richardson (Apr 8, 2017)

Yea, not unusual to see them really big around here, cant say I ever saw a 5 footer though. They don't plant them anymore, they are an invasive species, and there is a lot of effort in eradicating them along rivers and streams, they suck up water and choke out the native plants. I mostly see them around old farm places. I read where a mature tree takes in 100 gallons of water a day....

Reactions: Informative 1


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## phinds (Apr 8, 2017)

barry richardson said:


> Yea, not unusual to see them really big around here, cant say I ever saw a 5 footer though. They don't plant them anymore, they are an invasive species, and there is a lot of effort in eradicating them along rivers and streams, they suck up water and choke out the native plants. I mostly see them around old farm places. I read where a mature tree takes in 100 gallons of water a day....


Yeah, I had heard that they are invasive water hogs.


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## Steve Leady (Jan 21, 2018)

I think the first pictures (4 or 5) are Russian Olive. The log pictures for sure. I am an experienced woodsman and farmer in western Colorado. My creek bottom grows both Russian Olive (identical to the first pictures of logs) and Tamarisk or Saltcedar. Tamarisk is very different from Russian Olive. I'll go take a picture.


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## phinds (Jan 21, 2018)

Steve Leady said:


> Tamarisk is very different from Russian Olive


Yes, it certainly is which is why I can tell you emphatically that there is no way those planks are Russian olive. They are tamarisk. I'm not qualified to discuss whether or not Russian olive logs look like the log I posted, but the planks are tamarisk and they came from the log so ...

By the way, Steve, you should do an introduction post over in the intro section before posting further. Thanks.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Mr. Peet (Jan 21, 2018)

phinds said:


> Yes, it certainly is which is why I can tell you emphatically that there is no way those planks are Russian olive. They are tamarisk. I'm not qualified to discuss whether or not Russian olive logs look like the log I posted, but the planks are tamarisk and they came from the log so ...
> 
> By the way, Steve, you should do an introduction post over in the intro section before posting further. Thanks.



@Steve Leady 

Paul, 'Russian olive' bark is very similar in appearance to the salt cedar seen in Colorado within a few hours of Denver. I looked at a bunch when out visiting the boy in 2016. The feel and density are different. @vegas urban lumber I think Trev had said the evergreen species, 'Althel pine' was often the bigger than the other salt-cedars?


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## phinds (Jan 21, 2018)

Mr. Peet said:


> @Steve Leady
> 
> Paul, 'Russian olive' bark is very similar in appearance to the salt cedar seen in Colorado within a few hours of Denver.


Good to know. So sounds like @Steve Leady was right about the log appearance and that fooled him into thinking the planks were Russian olive.


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