''Allocasuarina distyla'', commonly known as scrub she-oak, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Casuarinaceae The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to south-eastern New South Wales. It is a

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

shrub that has branchlets up to long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of six to eight, the fruiting cones long containing winged seeds (samaras) long.

Description

''Allocasuarina distyla'' is a dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of and usually has smooth bark. Its branchlets are more or less erect, up to long, the leaves reduced to erect, scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of six to eight around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are long and wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, in whorls of 4.5 to 6.5 per centimetre (per 0.39 in.), the

anthers The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

long. Female cones are cylindrical, on a peduncle long or sometimes longer. Mature cones are long and in diameter, the samaras dark brown to black and long. Hybrids with '' A. littoralis'' are common between

Broken Bay Broken Bay, a semi-mature tide-dominated ria, drowned valley estuary, is a large inlet of the Tasman Sea located about north of Sydney on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies ...

and

Port Hacking Port Hacking Estuary ( Aboriginal Tharawal language: ''Deeban''), an open youthful tide dominated, drowned valley estuary, is located in southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia approximately south of Sydney central business district. Po ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1802 by

Étienne Pierre Ventenat Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, ...

who gave it the name ''Casuarina distyla'' in his book, ''Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu connues, cultivees dans le Jardin de J.M. Cels''. It was reclassified in 1982 into the genus ''Allocasuarina'' as ''A. distyla'' by Lawrie Johnson in the ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospita ...

''. The specific epithet, (''distyla'') means " distylous".

Distribution and habitat

Scrub she-oak grows in tall heath on sandstone ridges on the coast of New South Wales between Port Stephens and Eden, and inland as far as

Wollemi National Park The Wollemi National Park () is a protected national park and wilderness area that is located in the Central West and Hunter region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The park, the second largest national park in New South Wales, conta ...

and

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega, New South Wales, Bega with the Riverina. ...

Gallery

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2838498 Fagales of Australia distyla Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1802 Taxa named by Étienne Pierre Ventenat Dioecious plants