Saltcedar (Tamarix) is an extremely invasive species prevalent in riparian areas throughout the South Western US. It is native to arid regions of Asia and Eastern Europe. It sends it's roots down deep sucking up scarce ground water and concentrates the salts in it's leaves. The leaves are shed in the winter and accumulate on the ground and drastically increase the salt content of the surrounding soil, destroying any chance of survival for other plants and trees. There are vast riparian areas choked with saltcedar with all the natives now gone. The diversity needed by wildlife gone.
I took my boys on a hike in a wash near our home, pointing out various plants and their uses. They've been enjoying our chokecherry syrup and jelly and we found a tree loaded with ripe fruit. It was sweet but still left a hairy after taste on the tongue. Scrub oak, chinese elm, russian olive, cottonwood, poplars and wild rye, all have their uses and can be fed to rabbits. Tamarix is also gaining a foothold and from everything I've read it's assumed to be useless. While the boys were throwing sticks, I picked a few tamarix leaves and stuck my tongue against them. Salty! Each of the boys tried it and spit, yea, it's called saltcedar for a reason.
Last week I stopped by Steve Regan Company for some feed. Since I'm feeding lots of natural forage, I've been a bit concerned that maybe my rabbits needed a bit more salt in their diet. However, the feed store was out of mineral block salt spools. With that in mind, I grabbed a few small branches and we brought them home.
Surprisingly the rabbits seemed to enjoy it in small quantity. A beneficial use for a hated environmental pest. Maybe I don't need those salt spools after all.
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