Casuarina distyla var. paludosa

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

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]

Genus Casuarina

Young persistent branchlets distinguished from deciduous branchlets by shorter segments and differences in shape or size of leaves; furrows deep and closed , concealing stomates. Infructescences pedunculate , pubescent at least when immature ; bracts thin in exposed portion, not vertically expanded; bracteoles ± protruding from surface of infructescence, never greatly thickened, always lacking dorsal protuberance . Samaras pale yellow-brown or grayish, dull , glabrous . x = 9.

Species 17: almost throughout range of family .

Hybrids are frequent in cultivation; in the flora , hybrids are known between all combinations of the three species.[2]

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Casuarina

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

C. cristata (Belah) · C. cunninghamiana (Cunningham's Casuarina) · C. equisetifolia (Australian Pine) · C. glauca (Gray Sheoak) · C. lepidophloia (Belah) · C. obesa (Swamp She-Oak)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Chen Te-chao. 1982. Casuarinaceae. In: Tseng Yung-chien, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 20(1): 1-5.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID:
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3836987

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. "Casuarina". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.