Shrubs or trees, much branched. Young branches usually glabrous; two types of branches present: ligneous growing branches, not deciduous in winter vs. green vegetative branchlets, deciduous in winter. Leaves alternate, sessile, amplexicaul or vaginate, small, scale-like, glabrous, rarely hairy, mostly with salt-secreting glands. Flowers in racemes or panicles, blooming in spring; racemes lateral on growing branches of previous or current year and clustered in terminal panicles, or two types of flowering habits present in some species. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual, 4- or 5(or 6)-merous, usually pedicellate; bract 1. Calyx herbaceous or fleshy, 4- or 5-fid; lobes entire or faintly denticulate. Petals as many as calyx lobes, deciduous or persistent after anthesis. Disk variously shaped, mostly 4- or 5-lobed; lobes entire, or apex retuse or even deeply divided. Stamens 4 or 5, opposite to calyx lobes, or numerous, outer series opposite to calyx lobes; filaments often free, inserted between lobes of disk or at apices of lobes; anthers cordate, versatile, 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent. Pistil consisting of 3 or 4 carpels; ovary mostly conic, many seeded; placentation basal-parietal; styles 3 or 4; stigmas capitate, short. Capsule conic, abaxially 3-septicidal. Seeds numerous, minute; apical awns villous.

Tamarix tenuissma Nakai (J. Jap. Bot. 14: 292. 1938), described from Japan and Korea, was recorded from Liaoning (Dalian) and said to have ten stamens, but the Tamarix plants known in this region all have five stamens, so the identity of the record cannot yet be determined. Further study is required.

About 90 species: Africa, Asia, Europe; 18 species (seven endemic) in China.