Tamariscineae
A natural order of shrubs, sub-shrubs, and rarely trees or durable herbs, found mostly in the temperate and warmer regions of the Northern hemisphere, and also in South Africa. Flowers often white or pink, regular, often hermaphrodite, fleshy, small or showy, variously disposed; sepals three, rarely four, free or connate at base, closely imbricated; petals five, rarely four, inserted under the disk, imbricated, free, or the base cohering in a tube; disk hypogynous or loosely perigynous, ten-glandular, crenate or angular, rarely obsolete; stamens five or numerous, inserted on the disk, free or variously connate at base; anthers two-celled; ovary free. Capsule dehiscent, coriaceous. Leaves alternate, small, sometimes scale-like, entire and often fleshy or impressed-dotted; stipules none. Tamariscineae contain tannin, resin, and a volatile oil, which render them bitter and astringent. The order embraces five genera--Fouquiera, Hololachne, Myricaria, Reaumuria, and Tamarix--and scarcely forty species.