Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Casuarina cristata
Common name
Belah, Muurrgu
Family
Casuarinaceae
Where found
Dry forest, shrubland, woodland, and grassland. Western Slopes.
Notes
Tree to 20 m tall, frequently producing suckers. Bark finely fissured, scaly. Leaves very small, forming whorls of 8-12 teeth on the branchlets, each 0.05–0.07 cm long, soon withering. Articles ridged, hairless, occasionally sparsely hairy, somewhat waxy, drooping in vigorous specimens, erect in depauperate specimens, 8–17 mm long, 0.6–0.9 mm in diameter, breaking off readily. Male and female flowers on different trees. Flowers small, cream to yellow or red to brown, male flowers with 1-2 'petals', female flowers with 0 petals. Male flowers in catkin-like elongated clusters 1.3-5 cm long, at the ends of the branchlets. Female flowers clustered in oval heads at the ends of short side branchlets. Cones rusty hairy when young, nearly hairless at maturity. Mature cones 13-25 mm long. Bracteoles broadly pointed, thinly woody, prominent, extending well beyond the cone body. Mature 'seeds' 5-10.5 mm long, grey or yellow-brown, dull, with one wing.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Casuarina~cristata
(accessed 7 January, 2021)
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