Casuarina cunninghamiana Miq.

Miquel, F.A.W. (1848) Revisio critica Casuarinarum: 56, t. XIA. Type: Glendon, N.S.W., L.Leichhardt; lecto: MEL, with cones.

River Sheoak

Tree to 20 metres with drooping branchlets; trunk slightly furrowed; bark dark grey-brown, fissured; buds hairy; stems and branchlets glabrous, 0.5mm diam., broadly ridged longitudinally, jointed at leaf-whorls into segments (‘articles’) 4 - 9mm long.

Scale-like, erect, in whorls of 8 - 10, 0.3 - 0.5mm long, apparently veinless.

Unisexual; plants dioecious; males inflorescences terminal on long branchlets; slender spikes 4 - 40mm long; male flowers with 1 - 2 tepals; stamen 1; female inflorescences terminal on short lateral branches; females flowers with 2 bracteoles; perianth absent; carpels 2, fused; style 2-armed, reddish.

Cones 7 - 14mm long, 4 - 6mm wide; peduncle 2 - 9mm; floral bracteoles enlarged, woody, opening at maturity to release the winged samara (the indehiscent fruit) 3 - 4mm long; seed 1 per samara.

Not available.

Endemic to Australia, found in NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ, and southwards to southern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from close to sea level to 1000 m. Grows along margins of permanent freshwater streams, occasionally found in riparian rainforest.

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