Haloxylon aphyllum
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''Haloxylon ammodendron'', the saxaul, black saxaul, sometimes sacsaoul or saksaul ( rus, саксау́л, r=saksaúl, which is from kk, сексеуіл, r=seksewil), is a plant belonging to the family Amaranthaceae.


Description

The saxaul ranges in size from a large shrub to a small tree, , rarely tall. It has a brown trunk up to in diameter. The wood is heavy and coarse and the bark is spongy and water-soaked. The branches of the current year are green; older branches are brown, or gray to white. The
leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are reduced to very small cusp-like scales, so that the plant appears nearly leafless. The infloresences consist of short lateral shoots borne on stems of the previous year. The flowers are bisexual or male, very small, as long as or shorter than the
bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...
eoles. The flowering period is from March to April. In fruit, the perianth segments develop spreading pale brown or white wings. The diameter of the winged fruit is about . The seed is in diameter. The fruiting period is October to November.


Taxonomy

The species was first published in 1829 by
Carl Anton von Meyer Carl Anton von Meyer (in Russian: Карл Анто́нович фон Ме́йер, ''Karl Antonovich von Meyer'') (1 April 1795 – 24 February 1855) was a German, Russified botanist and explorer. Meyer was born in Vitebsk. He received his educa ...
as ''Anabasis ammodendron'' C.A.Meyer. In 1851 Alexander Bunge combined it to genus ''Haloxylon'' as ''Haloxylon ammodendron'' (C.A.Meyer) Bunge. Synonyms are: ''Arthrophytum ammodendron'' (C.A.Meyer) Litw., ''Arthrophytum haloxylon'' Litw., ''Haloxylon pachycladum'' M.Pop., and ''Haloxylon aphyllum'' (Minkw.) Iljin.. A related saxaul species is '' Haloxylon persicum'' (or white saxaul).


Distribution and habitat

The saxaul is distributed in the lowlands of Central Asiaincluding southern Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, western Uzbekistan, Iran, west Afghanistan, Mongolia and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, namely Xinjiang and
Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
. It also occurs incidentally in the west of Kirghizstan and Tajikistan. It is a psammophyte, and grows in sandy deserts, on sand dunes, and in
steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...
up to above sea level. In Central Asia it often forms 'saxaul forests', in Iran it usually grows more scattered. It also grows in the sandy parts of Saudi Arabia.


Ecology

'' Turcmenigena varentzovi'' (saxaul longhorn beetle, Varentsov's longhorn beetle) is a pest of the black saxaul tree in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Dark cone-like galls are often found on the plants. A parasitic plant, ''
Cistanche deserticola ''Cistanche deserticola'' is a holoparasitic member of the plant family Orobanchaceae, commonly known as desert-broomrape. The plant lacks chlorophyll and obtains its nutrients and water in a parasitic fashion from the black saxaul (''Haloxylon ...
'', that grows on the roots of the saxaul is prized in Chinese medicine as the ' ginseng of the desert'.


Uses

Saxaul is planted on a large scale in the
afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests a ...
of arid areas in China. Being highly drought-resistant, it has played an important role in the establishment of shelter belts and the fixation of sand dunes as a counter to
desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...
. The thick bark of the saxaul tree stores water. Quantities of the bark may be pressed for drinking water, making saxaul an important source of water in arid regions where it grows. Saxaul is a traditional Turkmen firewood. It was heavily harvested in some provinces in Turkmenistan as it was used for fuel to fight the
2008 Central Asia energy crisis The 2008 Central Asia energy crisis was an energy shortage in Central Asia, which, combined with the severe weather of the 2007-08 winter (the coldest since 1969) and high prices for food and fuel, caused considerable hardship for many. The abnor ...
. In the Gobi desert, the saxaul is often the only kind of tree found. It used to be, and in some place still is, the only kind of wood that nomads can use for heating and cooking. When the Russian Imperial Navy brought the first steamships into the land-locked
Aral Sea The Aral Sea ( ; kk, Арал теңізі, Aral teñızı; uz, Орол денгизи, Orol dengizi; kaa, Арал теңизи, Aral teńizi; russian: Аральское море, Aral'skoye more) was an endorheic basin, endorheic lake lyi ...
, the local Governor-General
Vasily Perovsky Count Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky (1794–1857) was an Imperial Russian general and statesman. The illegitimate son of Count , who became Russia's Minister of National Education, Perovsky studied at Moscow University, then joined the retinue ...
ordered the commander of Fort
Aralsk Aral, also known as Aralsk or Aral'sk, ( Kazakh: Арал, ''Aral'', ارال; Russian: Аральск, ''Araljsk'') is a small city in south-western Kazakhstan, located in the ''oblast'' (region) of Kyzylorda. It serves as the administrati ...
to collect "as large as possible supply" of saxaul wood (''Anabasis saxaul'', in the source) for use by the new steamships on their maiden navigation of 1851. Unfortunately for the Russian Naval budget (but probably quite fortunately for the saxaul itself), saxaul wood turned out to be not particularly suitable for steamships, as the hard and resinous wood was difficult to cut, and knotty and crooked saxaul logs could not be stored space-efficiently in the ships' holds. Therefore, starting from 1852, the Aral Flotilla switched to coal as its main fuel, despite the remarkable costs of shipping it by
caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...
from
Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...
. The Uzbek government has also planted the trees in the Aral Desert to help prevent the spread of toxic salts left behind when the sea dried up, which have caused numerous health problems for people living on the perimeter of the desert.


References


External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3851831 Amaranthaceae Trees of Western Asia Trees of China