Growing Trees That are Salt Tolerant
Below you will find a list of Shade, Flowering and Evergreen Trees from our plant database that have salt tolerance. If you click on any of the photos, you will see a Virtual Plant Tag that may contain photos, plant descriptions, usage suggestions and a link to where you can buy that plant for your landscaping. The concept of a tree can be difficult to define since different people might consider the same plant a broadleaf evergreen, needled evergreen, conifer, bush or shrub.
Uses for these trees vary by variety, and may thrive in full shade, partial shade or full sun and a variety of soil conditions including wet soil, moist soil, or dry soil.
With increased awareness of the value that native trees add to the natural landscape, these suggestions will help you make good choices about which plants are best suited for your home garden when salt issues can be a problem: American Elm (Ulmus americana) and several disease resistant clones and hybrids; Arizona Cypress including the interesting blue cultivars (Cupressus arizonica and C. a. var. glabra); Beach Plum or Prunus maritima; Black Locust and its more ornamental cultivars (Robinia pseudoacacia); Dahoon or Ilex Cassine, a native holly which also has fine cultivars and hybrids; Live Oak or Quercus virginiana, in very selected areas Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) is also tolerant of droughts; Red Oak or Northern Red Oak (Q. rubra); for naturalizing Redbay or Persea borbonia; Smooth Sumac or Rhus glabra and Staghorn Sumac (R. typhina); Southern Bayberry or Southern Waxmyrtle (Myrica cerifera); Thornless Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) has several much more ornamental cultivars that add much more to the landscape than the species; Yaupon or Ilex vomitoria and the numerous improved cultivars can fill a variety of landscape needs since it is tolerant or resistant in many areas.
Europe and Asia have given American gardeners numerous ornamental plants that tolerate or thrive in the environmental conditions in the United States. Salt tolerant suggestions include: Broadleaf or Japanese Podocarpus (P. nagi) and Chinese or Shrubby Podocarpus (P. macrophyllus) and Willowleaf Podocarpus (P. salignus), Chinese or Oriental Photinia (P. serrulata), Common Cherrylaurel or English Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) also has several more ornamental cultivars, for wonderful winter color Common Seabuckthorn, Sea Berry or Hippophae rhamnoides, English Holly or Ilex aquifolium including an exciting variegated form, Ginkgo or Maidenhair Trees and fine selections, Planetree Maple or Sycamore Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), for warmer climates the White Bottlebrush from Australia adds fall color.