Common name: Drooping Sheoak
Allocasuarina verticillata (Lam.) L.A.S.Johnson APNI* Synonyms: Casuarina stricta Aiton APNI*
Casuarina quadrivalvis Labill. APNI*
Description: Dioecious small tree with rounded crown, 4–10 m high; bark fissured.
Branchlets strongly drooping, to 40 cm long; articles when dried of markedly greater diameter at apex than towards base, mostly densely pubescent in furrows, 15–40 mm long, 0.7–1.5 mm in diameter; phyllichnia slightly rounded-convex with a verruculose ridge; teeth 9–13, spreading, withering, not overlapping.
Male spikes 3–12 cm long, 2.5–4 whorls per cm; anther 1.2–2.5 mm long. The male bracteoles tend to fall as a pair or united with the 1–2 tepals because of their fimbriate apices becoming entangled.
Cones cylindrical to barrel-shaped, sessile or on peduncle to 10 mm long; cone body 20–50 mm long, 17–30 mm in diameter; bracts with long slender mucro; bracteoles with a broad-acute to acute apex (often pungent), protuberance fused with body or inconspicuous and only about as long as bracts. Samara 7.0–12.0 mm long, very dark brown.
Distribution and occurrence: South inland from near Cobar on rocky hills, extending to coastal shale patches near Sydney and southwards. Also in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Usually grows in grassy woodland, forming pure stands or amongst eucalypts; also on rocky sea-coasts and on dry ridges inland.
NSW subdivisions: CC, SC, CT, ST, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas. S.A.
Text by K. L. Wilson & L. A. S. Johnson (1990); edited KL Wilson (April 2026)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 1 (1990); Wilson and Johnson, Flora of Australia vol. 3 (1989)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
|
