Common Name

Swamp Sheoak, Swamp Oak, Western Swamp Oak

Family

Casuarinaceae

Notes

Shrub or small tree to 15m tall. Leaves reduced to scales sheathing the joints between the stem sections. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), with 0 petals. Male flower groups catkin-like, at the ends of the branchlets, female flowers clustered at the ends of short side branchlets. One natural population in NSW, at Lake Benanee, the current population only of female plants. Also widely planted in NSW for agroforestry. Endangered NSW. Protected NSW. Endangered Vic. Threatened list Vic.

Differs from Casuarina pauper and Casuarina cristata in that there are 12-16 teeth per article, the cones are 7-10mm in diameter with only one obvious striation, and the seeds are 3.5-5mm long.

Short description in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 208-209

NSW Department of Environment & Heritage profile: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10152

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Casuarina~obesa

FloraBase photos: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/photo/1742