Tamarix

This tamarix combines delightfully when in bloom with the Russian olive. There is an artistic group nearby, where a crabtree and a Russian olive stand on a hilltop with blue sky for a background, behind a tamarix in full bloom of delicate pink and feathery gray green.

The high plateau of Iran, screened by the higher rims of Elburz and Khorassan from the north winds, is swept by dry icy gales and exposed to great extremes of temperature. There the high treeless steppe of short grass surrounds arid depressions or salt-pans with the usual carpet of low, fleshy salt-bushes and heaths of tamarixes.

The tamarixes are not only valuable for their fine-textured foliage but they also flower abundantly in colors of pink or lavender.