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Common name:       She-oak                                          

Etymology of scientific name:   From the Malay word for the cassowary, kasuari, alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage

Flowers:                  

• Monoecious or dioecious 

Fruit:                         

• Cone-like with outward-pointing valves, each containing a seed

Leaves:         

•  Drooping twigs replace leaves for photosynthesis

• Evergreen 

Habit:        

• Trees and shrubs 

Habitat:                     

Species:                     

• World:            91 S,      4 G

• Australia:        3 S,    68 G

Additional notes:        

• Dicotyledonous flowering plant in the order Fagales

• The roots have nitrogen-fixing nodules that contain the soil actinomycete

• Shire of Buloke, Victoria, is named after Allocasuarina luehmannii (buloke or bull-oak)

Casuaranaceae at the ANBG

 Characteristic          Allocasuarina:                                               Casuarina: 

  1.  Mature samaras                  Red-brown to black & shiny                                                Grey or yellow-brown and dull       

2.   Cone bracteoles:

       *  Composition                       Thickly woody                                                                             Thinly woody

      *   Shape                                      Convex, extending slightly beyond cone body        Prominent, extending well beyond cone body

      *  Dorsal protuberance     Usually separate angular, divided or spiny                 None 

Distribution:     .....do not add up to 91

1. Gymnostoma  -   western Pacific Ocean and Malasia                                                                                                          (18 species)

2. Cuethostoma  -  Malasia on the islands of Palawan, Borneo, Halmahera and New Guinea        (2 species)

3. Allocasuarina  -  endemic to Australia, occurring primarily in the south                                             (61 species)

4. Casuarina          -   Australia, India, se Asia, islands of the western Pacific and eastern Africa  (17 species)

KEY TO GENERA IN AUSTRALIA:     Source: Flora in Australia Vol' 3                                          

1. Allocasuarina  -  Furrows of branchlets deep and narrow, the stomates not visible; teeth 4–20 per whorl; cone bracts mostly thin at outer face, not conspicuous                                             (59 species)

2. Casuarina          -   Furrows of branchlets deep and narrow, the stomates not visible; teeth 4–20 per whorl; cone bracts mostly thin at outer face, not conspicuous       Mature samaras grey or yellow-brown, dull; cone bracteoles thinly woody, prominent, extending well beyond cone body, without dorsal protuberance; teeth 5–20 per whorl       (6 species)

3. Gymnostoma -  Furrows of branchlets shallow and open, exposing the stomates; teeth 4 per whorl; cone bracts broad and woody beneath each pair of bracteoles   Mature samaras red-brown to black, shining; cone bracteoles thickly woody and convex, mostly extending only slightly beyond cone body, mostly with a separate angular, divided or spiny dorsal protuberance; teeth 4–14 per whorl    (1 species)

EXAMPLES:

Casuarina

Gymnostoma