Fig. 86.—Greasewood (proper)—Sarcobatus vermiculatus
(Hook) Torr.
- A. Appearance of a branch when not in blossom.
- B. Spiny-branchlet from the same.
- C. Branchlet bearing cones of male flowers.
- D. Cone of male flowers, enlarged.
- E. Branch bearing fruits.
- F. Cluster of fruits, enlarged.
- G. Vertical section through a fruit, showing the seed
- with its curved embryo, (enlarged).
Where a luxuriant growth of this plant is found, the soil may contain from 38,000 to 117,000 pounds of total salts per acre, of which sometimes nearly half is carbonate of soda; the content of common salt is usually low, and Glauber’s salt or sulfate of soda, sometimes with considerable proportion of epsom salt, forms a variable proportion of the total.
Greasewood is distinctly a plant of the Great Basin, only reaching California in the adjacent counties of Lassen, Alpine, Mono, and northern Inyo. It is very abundant on the lower levels of Honey Lake valley, Cal.
The Sarcobatus is chiefly found on silty or sandy soils of good native fertility ([see page 445, chapter 22]), so that when its excess of salsoda is neutralized by means of gypsum, the land becomes very productive. Unfortunately the cost of the amount of gypsum required to render such soils adapted to the tolerance of most culture plants is often prohibitive; but where the correction of only small spots is called for, the “white alkali” resulting from the gypsum treatment would be tolerated by many culture plants.
Alkali-heath
(Frankenia grandifolia campestris Gray);
Fig. 87.
Fig. 87.—Alkali-Heath—Frankenia grandifolia campestris
A. Gray.
Alkali-heath is perhaps the most widely distributed of any of the California alkali plants. Its perennial, deep-rooting habit of growth, and flexible, somewhat wiry rootstock, which enables it to persist even in cultivated ground, render it a valuable plant as an alkali indicator. The salt-content where Alkali-heath grows luxuriantly is invariably high, ranging from 64,000 to 282,000 pounds per acre; salsoda varies from 680 to 19,590 pounds; common salt ranges from 5,000 to 10,000 pounds. Such soils would not be benefited by the application of gypsum, as the salts are already largely in the neutral state. Of useful plants only Saltbushes and Tussock-grass are likely to flourish in such lands, when not too wet.