Allocasuarina muelleriana

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fagales > Casuarinaceae >   Allocasuarina  muelleriana

Other links:     

Common name:               Slaty She-oak  

Conservation status:   unknown

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• Male flowers are arranged in spikes 10–40 mm long and often appear like string of beads, the anthers 0.5–1.0 mm long

• Female cones are cylindrical, sessile or on a peduncle up to 16 mm long

Fruit:                         

• Mature cones are cylindrical 14–30 mm long and 9–18 mm in diameter, containing black, winged seeds 6–9 mm long

Leaves:         

•  The leaves are reduced to scale-like teeth 0.3–0.6 mm long, arranged in whorls of five to eight around the branchlets

• The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls are 3–11 mm long, 0.6–1.1 mm wide and are often waxy

Stem & branches:     

•  Smooth bark

• Its branchlets are more or less erect and up to 120 mm long

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A fast growing dioecious tree typically grows to a height of 0.5–4 m 

• It is rarely a monoecious shrub 

Habitat:   

• Heath and scrub

Distribution:                  

• Native to South Australia and Victoria

• Subspecies:

  • Subspecies muelleriana occurs from Ceduna and the Flinders Ranges, including Kangaroo Island in South Australia to Bendigo in Victoria

  • Subspecies alticola is found in the north-eastern part of the species' range from the Freeling Heights to Wilpena Pound 

  • Subsp. notocolpica is restricted to Kangaroo Island

Additional notes:    

• Taxonomy

  • Slaty sheoak was first formally described in 1856 by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel who gave it the name Casuarina muelleriana in the journal, Nederlandsch Kruidkundig Archief from specimens collected in the Mount Lofty Ranges by Ferdinand von Mueller

  • In 1982, Johnson transferred the species to Allocasuarina as A. muelleriana in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens

  • Johnson described three subspecies of A. muelleriana in the Flora of Australia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

    • Allocasuarina muelleriana subsp. alticola L.A.S.Johnson has the sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls 5–7 mm long and 0.7–1 mm wide, the mature cones sessile or on a peduncle up to 3 mm long

    • Allocasuarina muelleriana (Miq.)L.A.S.Johnson subsp. muelleriana L.A.S.Johnson has the sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls 3–8 mm long and 0.6–0.8 mm wide, the mature cones usually on a peduncle 1–8 mm long

    • Allocasuarina muelleriana subsp. notocolpica L.A.S.Johnson has the sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls 5–11 mm long and 0.9–1.1 mm wide, the mature cones on a stout peduncle 8–17 mm long

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocasuarina_muelleriana (2023)