Casuarinaceae

Casuarinaceae R.Br., Voy. Terra Austral. 2: 571. 1814. nom. cons. 'Casuarina Family'

Salient Features

Members are trees or shrubs, monoecious or dioecious, with drooping equisetoid branches.
Leaves scale like, minute, whorled at node, often connate forming toothed sheath.
Inflorescence catkin, flowers unisexual, minute, subtended by bracts.
Perianth absent, stamen 1, carpel 2, united with superior ovary.
Fruit a samara, aggregation of fruit looks like cones.

Diversity:

World- 4 genera, 91 species (The Plant List 2013); 4 genera, 91 species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016); 4 genera, 95 species (Mabberley 2017); 4 genera, 92 species (CoL 2021)
India - 1 genus, 2 species (Karthikeyan. 2000; BSI, 2021))
Indian Himalaya- 2 genera, 2 species (Singh et al. 2019)
Uttarakhand - 1 genus, 1 species (Uniyal et al. 2007)

General Characters:

Casuarinaceae in Watson & Dallwitz (1992 onwards)
Casuarinaceae in Stevens (2001 onwards)
Casuarinaceae in POWO 2021 (Plants of the World Online)
Casuarinaceae in Wikipedia

Systematic Position of Family in Different Systems of Classifications:

Systematic position in 2-Superkingdom, 7-Kingdom classification of Ruggiero et al. (2015)

Super Kingdom- Eukaryota, Kingdom- Plantae, Subkingdom- Viridiplantae, Infrakingdom- Streptophyta, Superphylum- Embryophyta, Phylum- Tracheophyta, Subphylum- Spermatophytina, Superclass- Angiospermae, Class- Magnoliopsida, Superorder- Rosanae, Order- Fagales

Bentham & Hooker (1862-83)

Class : Dicotyledons
Subclass : Monochlamydeae
Series : Unisexuales

Engler & Prantl (1887-1915)

Kingdom : Plantae
Division : Embryophyta Siphonogama
Subdivision : Angiospermae
Class : Dicotyledoneae
Subclass : Archichlamydeae
Order : Verticillatae

Hutchinson (1973)

Phylum : Angiospermae
Subphylum : Dicotyledones
Division : Lignosae
Order : Casuarinales

Cronquist (1988)

Division : Magnoliophyta
Class : Magnoliopsida
Subclass : Hamamelidae
Order : Casuarinales

Thorne & Reveal (2007)

Class : Magnoliopsida
Subclass : Hamamelididae
Super Order: Hamamelidanae
Order : Betulales

Takhtajan (2009)

Phylum : Magnoliophyta
Class : Magnoliopsida
Subclass : Hamamelidae
Super Order : Hamamelidanae
Order : Casuarinales

Reveal (2012)

Class : Equisetopsida
Subclass : Magnoliidae
Super Order : Rosanae
Order : Juglandales

APG-IV (2016)

Clade : Angiosperms
Clade : Eudicots
Clade : Core Eudicots
Clade : Superrosids
Clade : Rosids
Clade : Fabids
Order : Fagales

Shipunov (2020)

Class : Angiospermae
Subclass : Rosidae
Super Order : Rosanae
Order : Fagales

Genera & Species in Pantnagar

To see larger images please click on the names

Cultivated Flora

Casuarina equisetifolia L.

Vernacular name: Casuarina, Common Ironwood, Horse-tail tree, Whistling Pine (English); Junglisaru (Hindi)

Nativity: India to West Pacific (POWO, 2019)

Common Characteristics: Monoecious tall tree. Leaves needle like, scale leaves in whorls of 6 to 8. Fruits cone like.

Flowering period: September to May

Propagation Methods: Propagated by seeds (Dave’s Garden)

Photographed @ CAVS