Casuarina cristata

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fagales > Casuarinaceae  > Casuarina  cristata

Other links:        

Plant  information

Common name:               Belah  

• Belah is an aboriginal name; other common names include scaly-barked casuarina, scrub she-oak, billa, ngaree, bulloak and swamp oak

• It is called Muurrgu or Murrgu in the Yuwaalaraay dialect of the Gamilaraay language around Walgett in northwestern NSW

Conservation status:   . . .

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

•  The true leaves are tiny scales along the branchlets.

Stem & branches: 

• The tree has a dark greyish brown scaly bark, and its pendulous branches having a weeping habit

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Belah grows as a tree reaching 10–20 m in height and has a DBH of 1 m

Habitat:   

•  It is an important component of the endangered Brigalow ecological community of inland NSW and Queensland

• Here it is found as a dominant tree with brigalow (Acacia harpophylla), black gidyea (A. argyrodendron), bimble box (Eucalyptus populnea), Dawson River blackbutt (E. cambageana), E. pilligaensis and the smaller trees such as wilga (Geijera parviflora) and false sandalwood (Eremophila mitchellii) in open forest over mainly Cenozoic clay plains

• On limestone-based soils, it may have a dense understory composed of pearl bluebush (Maireana sedifolia) or black bluebush (M. pyramidata)

• Other plants it grows with include bonaree (Alectryon oleifolius), sugarwood (Myoporum platycarpum) and nelia (Acacia loderi)

Distribution:                  

•  It is native to a band across inland eastern Australia

• The range is from Clermont in central Queensland south through to Temora in southern NSW

Additional notes:     

• The Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel described the belah in 1848, and it still bears its original name

• Ecology

  • Belah can reproduce by suckering from its root system, and clonal stands have been recorded

  • Seedlings only appear after periods of high rainfall

Sources of information:

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