A long time ago in the North of Sinai, Moses threw yet another stick through the air and, at the spot at where it landed, 12 springs appeared. These 12 springs represented the 12 tribes wandering aimlessly about Sinai looking for their promised land. Since they must have been pretty thirsty by now, the springs proved very useful. However, the tribes were also pretty hungry too, and miraculously 12 bunches of trees popped up around the springs as well. Growing up to 5 metres tall, the shrubby branches of these larger trees covered in silky hair take on the appearance of a natural candyfloss, ideally suitable fodder for the children of Israel. However, it’s not the leaves and branches we’re interested in. Flowering in springtime, the pale pink 5 petaled buds attract multitudes of small hungry sap-sucking bees who turn the toxic sap into a sweet honey substance, originally called "Man Hu" in Hebrew, meaning " what is it", but better known to us now as Manna, the food which came from Heaven. This wafery substance is then baked into cakes, occasionally accompanied by a Sinai partridge, or Saloua, and probably a glass of water from the spring. That is, if there’s any water left in the spring.

The sting in the tale is that apart from meaning life to the Israelites, the Tamarisk tree spells death and destruction to everyone else around it. Classified as a ‘noxious weed’ by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who, apparently not appreciating the need for Manna nowadays, are currently tracking its spread with satellite photography. Their aim is to control and eradicate it, especially in the Western United States where it’s rampant and threatening the entire bird population of the Colorado River. These trees have proved notoriously difficult to live with and seem to be immune to almost every known pesticide and poison known to man with the possible exception of Arsenic. Their roots can go over 10 metres down into the ground searching to quench their thirst for both salt and up to 1000 litres of water a day, drying up springs and wells rather greedily, thus depleting everyone else’s supply. Apart from sucking the springs dry, they cover the ground around them with a salty deposit from the leaves and branches so that no other trees and shrubs can grow or survive All these dry salty branches and leaves lying around on the floor increase the risk of fire, and guess who loves a good fire? The Tamarisk tree loves a good fire, since afterwards the ground is full of nitrogen and salt, thus giving half a million seeds per tree the chance to germinate and flourish in an environment suited only to them.

On the plus side, they provide shade from the sun and the wind for whichever animals are still left, and there apparently remain a few examples of an endangered species of bird known as the lesser spotted willow flycatcher who like to nest in them. I’m also reliably informed by the aged writings of Messer’s Alpinus & Vesligius that the root, leaves or bark, boiled in wine, stays off haemorrhoidal bleeding, period pains, leprosy, colic, hardness of the spleen, toothache, earache, the biting of venomous serpents and even good old red eyes. With just a touch of honey added to the mixture, it’s good for gangrene, ulcers, nits and lice. Its ashes quickly heal burns, blisters and scaldings, and to drink the brew from a cup made of Tamarisk wood is said to alleviate melancholy and black jaundice, but that’s probably due more to the wine content.