Because the bark is reddish-brown, Tamarix is called "red willow" in western China. The so-called "big string of red willows" is actually made in western pastoral areas according to local conditions, with the focus on barbecue with red willow (tamarisk) wood or red willow charcoal; As for the skewers of red willow branches, it's just to make the best use of them. There is no red willow firewood in other places, and only red willow skewers are used, which is already putting the cart before the horse; Sometimes it is quite ridiculous to even use red willow branches or other branches that I don't know.
Tamarix ramosissima should be used in the furnace instead of using tamarix ramosissima branches to string meat like this. Tamarix plants in Xinjiang and Central Asia are the hosts of Cistanche tubulosa, a Chinese herbal medicine with high price (note that it is not valuable). In the past, excessive excavation of cistanche tubulosa caused great damage to Tamarix chinensis vegetation. Tamarix chinensis is an important windbreak and sand-fixing plant, and preventing desertification seems to be a very important task in vegetation protection in China. The only adjustment after the publication of the List of National Key Protected Plants (the first batch) is related to this-the Nostoc flagelliforme is adjusted to the first-class protected plant. Cistanche tubulosa and Tamarix ramosissima, one of its hosts, are also included in the second batch, with the original intention of controlling sand.
Under the general trend of preventing the expansion of desert, the protection of cistanche tubulosa and Tamarix forest in China is still effective, which is mainly reflected in the large number of artificial planting of Tamarix forest to prevent wind and fix sand; At the same time, the technology of artificial cultivation of cistanche tubulosa is quite mature, which has brought more income to local residents while protecting the environment.
However, I still want to emphasize that the development of artificial cultivation industry is not helpful to the protection of wild plant population. One of the reasons is that Chinese people are superstitious about the "better effect" of wild medicinal materials. The price of wild cistanche deserticola has increased 40 times from about 10 years ago in 50 yuan to over 2,000 yuan now, although it is much cheaper to cultivate cistanche deserticola.
The second reason is that the cost of mining wild resources is obviously much lower than that of honestly planting them yourself. Greater economic benefits and extremely low costs make many people choose to take risks. Every year, hundreds of poachers are caught in the wild distribution area of cistanche deserticola, which is enough to confirm the preface.