''Allocasuarina luehmannii'', commonly known as buloke or bull-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 to south-eastern continental Australia. 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 ...

tree, that has its leaves reduced to scales in whorls of ten to fourteen, and the mature fruiting cones are long containing winged seeds ( samaras) long.

Description

''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' is a dioecious tree that typically grows to a height of and has furrowed bark. Its branchlets are more or less erect, up to long, the leaves reduced to scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of ten to fourteen around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are long, wide and often waxy. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, in whorls of five to eight per cm (per 0.4 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 sessile or on a peduncle up to long, the mature cones shortly cylindrical, long and in diameter containing reddish-brown samaras long.

Taxonomy and naming

Bull-oak was first formally described in 1900 by

Richard Thomas Baker Richard Thomas Baker (1 December 1854 – 14 July 1941) was an Australian economic Botany, botanist, museum curator and educator. Early life Baker was born in Woolwich, England, son of Richard Thomas Baker, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah, née ...

, who gave it the name ''Casuarina luehmannii'' in the ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society succ ...

'' from specimens collected by

Richard Hind Cambage Richard Hind Cambage (7 November 1859 – 28 November 1928) was an Australian surveyor and botanist who made important contributions to the description of the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Eucalyptus''. Early life Cambage, son of John Fisher Cambag ...

. It was subsequently reclassified in the ''Allocasuarina'' genus as ''A.luehmannii'' by

Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for the whole of his professional car ...

in 1985 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

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

people of New South Wales use the name ''Ngany'' to refer to this species.

Distribution and habitat

''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' usually grows in scattered places in woodland from

Mareeba Mareeba is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. Between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''meeting of the water ...

and south through central Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to north-western Victoria and nearby areas of South Australia. It rarely occurs near the coast, except in the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

and near

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

Ecology

This tree is an important food resource for the endangered southeastern subspecies of the

red-tailed black cockatoo The red-tailed black cockatoo (''Calyptorhynchus banksii'') also known as Banksian- or Banks' black cockatoo, is a large black cockatoo native to Australia. Adult males have a characteristic pair of bright red panels on the tail that gives ...

in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, where some remnant stands are threatened by farming practices.

Uses

Wood

The wood of buloke is commonly used for knife handles, flooring, fine furniture and turned objects and is among the hardest woods in the world, with a Janka hardness of .

Aboriginal uses

The

people of NSW use the timber and resinous sap to make a range of tools and other implements, including weapons, such as boomerangs and clubs. Wiradjuri people also value the species due to its ability to attract many animals that are food sources, such as possums and birds. The

Shire of Buloke The Shire of Buloke is a Local Government Areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and, in August 2021, had a population of 6,201. It i ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

is named after this tree species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2838513 luehmannii Fagales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of Queensland Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Trees of Australia Drought-tolerant trees Dioecious plants Taxa named by Richard Thomas Baker Plants described in 1900