font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Allocasuarina littoralis

(Black Sheoak)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Common Names

[ Back to top ]

Common Names in English:

Black Sheoak, Bull Oak

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Casuarinaceae

Trees or shrubs evergreen , monoecious or dioecious. Ultimate branchlets jointed , with several short, basal articles and 1-numerous elongated articles, slender, ridged , often pubescent at least when young. Leaves small, toothlike, in whorls of 4 to ca. 20 (equal to number of ridges on branchlets) ; stipules absent. Inflorescences spikelike or headlike, with alternating whorls of toothlike bracts; within each bract a single flower, with 2 lateral scalelike bracteoles, persistent (rarely deciduous in male Allocasuarina) ; parts sometimes pubescent when young, mostly glabrous at maturity. Flowers unisexual , without pedicels. Male inflorescences spikes, terminal or lateral, terete , slender. Female inflorescences headlike, globose or ellipsoid , usually terminal on short, lateral branches. Male flowers: tepals 1 or 2, scalelike, deciduous, hooded ; stamen 1; anthers 2-loculed, longitudinally dehiscent , basifixed . Female flowers: perianth none; carpels 2, fused; only anterior carpel fertile, posterior carpel usually ± reduced or obsolete ; ovules 2 (rarely 4), parietal , paired at base of carpel, chalazogamous; style short; stigmas 2, red, linear . Infructescences ± woody, conelike, with dense whorls of fruit, with 2 bracteoles of each flower enlarged as valves , persistent. Samaras flat, (usually) winged at apex, initially enclosed by 2 bracteoles, which separate at maturity to release samara. Seed 1; cotyledons large; endosperm absent; embryo straight, often more than 1.

Four genera and 97 species: mainly in Australia, extending to SE Asia, Malesia, Pacific Islands; commonly introduced and occasionally naturalized elsewhere; one genus and three species (all introduced) in China.[1]

Physical Description

Habit: Evergreen .

Flowers: Bloom Period: October, November. • Flower Color: orange, red

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 30-40' tall.

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,869 meters (0 to 12,694 feet).[2]

Biology

[ Back to top ]

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Synonyms

Casuarina littoralis Salisb

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 1996

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Allocasuarina

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 6 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. decaisneana (Desert Oak) · A. lehmanniana (She-Oak) · A. littoralis (Black Sheoak) · A. muelleriana (Slaty She-Oak) · A. torulosa (Forest Oak) · A. verticillata (Drooping She-Oak)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal January 30, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Nianhe Xia, Lawrence A. S. Johnson & Karen L. Wilson "Casuarinaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 106. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 159.830 meters (524.377 feet), Standard Deviation = 560.870 based on 50,135 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/19/2012