Allocasuarina distyla

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

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

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:               Scrub she-oak

Conservation status:   unknown

Etymology:   

• In Greek, 'allos' translates to 'other' and 'Casuarina' implies a comparison to 'foliage'

• 'Di' translates to 'two' whereas 'stylos' translates to 'column'

• These translations relate to the characteristics of this plant

Flowers:                  

• This plant is dioecious, meaning that the male and female reproductive organs develop on different trees

• The spikes of male flowers are 1–5 cm long with roughly 5 whorls of flowers per cm

• The most common time this plant will flower is between the months of July through September, however, this may vary depending on rainfall

Fruit:                         

•  The cones are up to 12 mm long and often have a sterile apex

• The samara is a very dark brown

Leaves:         

•  Its erect branchlets are up to 35 centimetres long

• The ridges are angular to rounded and occasionally pubescent

• There are 6–8 teeth

Stem & branches:        

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It is a dioecious shrub or small tree

• It typically grow to a height of 4 metres tall, or 7 m in richer soils

Habitat:   

• This plant is extremely resilient as it has the ability to grow in poor conditions such as draught

Distribution:                  

•  Endemic to eastern Australia

• Found in coastal areas of NSW and southern Queensland

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • The species was first described as Casuarina distyla by the botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1802 in the Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu connues, cultivees dans le Jardin de J.M. Cels

  • It was subsequently reclassified into the Allocasuarina genus by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson in 1982 in a revision of the sheoaks, Notes on Casuarinaceae II., published in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens