This is Umbu (Myricaria genus), an incredibly abundant and useful shrub that fills the streambeds of the valleys above Tar.
We use umbu primarily for firewood. This plant grows dozens of long thin pithy wands which — when eventually overshadowed — dry naturally on the plant.
Bundles of these wands are perfect for roasting barley in the fall.
The flower spikes.
Leaves just emerging in May.
Villagers tell us that snow leopards eat the leaves of umbu as a digestive tonic. The flavor is potent and acrid.
Leaves and flower spikes emerging in late May.
Flowers opening in early June.
An example of the incredibly long, reaching character of Umbu.
Umbu is incredibly tenacious. Here we are clearing a typical umbu area which has countless thin, knobby, finger-thick stems up to two meters long. Thicker and thicker limbs support all these, as you move in and down toward the center of each plant. The trunks get to be six inches thick, usually many coming from the same center in the ground, dense, hard, yellow and even green on the inside, and they make excellent hot-burning firewood.