Quadrangula chamaecyparis

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 Â± reduced or obsolete ; ovules 2 (rarely 4), parietal , paired at base of carpel, chalazogamous; style short; stigmas 2, red, linear . Infructescences Â± 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.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.

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
        Class: Magnoliopsida () - Brongniart, 1843 - Dicotyledons
        Subclass: Hamamelididae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Casuarinanae () - (Lindley, 1833) Takhtajan, 1997 Ex Reveal & Doweld, 1999
        Order: Casuarinales () - Lindley, 1833
        Family: Casuarinaceae () - R. Brown in Flinders, 1814 - She-Oak Family
        Genus: Quadrangula ()
        Specific epithet: chamaecyparis - (Poiss.) Baum.-Bod. - White-cedar, false-cypress, faux-cypres [Greek chamai, on the ground, or dwarf, and cyparissos, cypress]
        Botanical name: - Quadrangula chamaecyparis (Poiss.) Baum.-Bod.