Casuarinaceae

• Casuarina cunninghamiana
• Casuarina cunninghamiana
• Casuarina equisetifolia
• Casuarina glauca

• Query IPNI
• Common Name: River She Oak
• Family: Casuarinaceae R. Br.

• Country of Origin: Australia, eastern & northern
• Habitat: common along riverbanks

• Description: Medium sized tree 15–20 m or more tall, the trunk straight, to 30 cm in diameter. Closely resembling C. equisetifolia, but the fruiting cones are much smaller (ca 10 mm long), globular, very regular, with prominent valves. Scale leaves 8–10, whorled at the nodes, minute. Male flowers crowded in rings equipped with grayish scales, each with one exposed brown stamen, less than 0.5 mm long, with two minute brown scalelike sepals. Seeds pale brown, ca 440,000–550,000/kg.

  Native to eastern and northern Australia, growing from southern New South Wales (latitude 37°S) to northern Queensland (latitude 12°S). It often fringes freshwater streams and rivers on both sides of the Great Dividing Range. A distinct race., possibly a separate species, occurs along larger rivers in higher rainfall areas of the Northern Territory (NRC, 1982).

  Ranging from Warm Temperate Dry to Moist through Tropical Thorn to Dry Forest Life Zones, the river sheoak is reported to tolerate annual precipitation of 5 to 15 dm. Has survived temperatures of -8°C with no apparent injury. Said to tolerate up to 50 light frosts per year. Usually occurs in alluvial soils varying from silty loams to sands and gravels.

  In its native range, root hairs of C. cunninghamiana commonly become infected with the symbiotic actinomycete Frankia, thereby forming root nodules which are the site of N2 fixation.