Common name: Tarajal, Tamarisk
Scientific name: Tamarix canariensis
Status: Tarajal is common in the lower section of the Ajuy ravine and in many other ravines on the island. It forms dense copses up to 5-6 meters high, preferably in places with outcrops of brackish water, both on the coast and inland.
Habitat and distribution: It is a native species that is present in all the Canary Islands except El Hierro. It grows on saline soils on the coast and inland, in depressions and along stream banks. It blooms in spring and summer.
How to recognize it: It is a shrubby plant that can reach a tree-like size, with scale-shaped, glaucous leaves and purple or reddish-brown branches. It differs from other species of tarajal for its racemes 3-5 mm wide, with pink flowers.
Curiosities: The tarajal can excrete salt through its fine leaves, which is why small drops of water are often seen hanging from its branches, like tiny tears with an intense salty taste. It is precisely its quality of extracting brackish water from the subsoil and then depositing a layer of salty litter on the surface of the soil, making it sterile for many other plants, which makes the tarajal not well seen by farmers in the vicinity of the crops.
