''Allocasuarina huegeliana'', commonly known as rock sheoak 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 Western 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 eight to ten, the mature fruiting cones long containing winged seeds (samaras) long.

Description

''Allocasuarina huegeliana'' is a dioecious tree that typically grows to a height of and has dark, fissured bark. Its needle-like branchlets are up to long, the leaves reduced to scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of eight to ten around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are mostly long and wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, in whorls of 4.5 to seven 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 borne on a peduncle long. Flowering occurs from May to December or January, and the mature cones are long and in diameter containing dark brown to black samaras long. This species is similar to '' A. verticillata''.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1848 by

Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Gr ...

who gave it the name ''Casuarina huegeliana'' in Lehmann's ''

Plantae Preissianae ''Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss'', more commonly known as ''Plantae preissianae'', is a book written by Johann Georg Christian Le ...

'', from specimens collected on Mount Brown near

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

in 1840 by

Ludwig Preiss Johann August Ludwig Preiss (21 November 1811 – 21 May 1883) was a German-born British botanist and zoologist. Early life Preiss was born in Herzberg am Harz. He obtained a doctorate, probably at Hamburg, then emigrated to Western Australia. ...

. It was reclassified in 1982 as ''Allocasuarina drummondiana'' 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 In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''huegeliana'') honours the collector of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

specimens.

Distribution and habitat

Rock sheoak grows near granite in the south-west of Western Australia, where it in native in parts of its range, but naturalised in other places. It occurs from the Murchison River and Mingenew, south to the south coast, and east to near Balladonia, in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

, Coolgardie,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeography, biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the South_coast_of_Western_Australia , south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordere ...

Geraldton Sandplains Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion of Western Australia. It has an area of . The Geraldton Sandplains is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion, as asses ...

Jarrah Forest Jarrah Forest, also known as the Southwest Australia woodlands, is an interim Australian bioregion and ecoregion located in the south west of Western Australia.

, Mallee, Murchison and

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

bioregions of Western Australia.

Conservation status

''Allocasuarina huegeliana'' is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Government of Western Australia, Western Australian government department responsible for managing lands and waters described in the ''Conservation and Land Management A ...

Use in horticulture

''A. huegeliana'' is a moderate to fast growing tree that is

nitrogen fixing Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular dinitrogen () is converted into ammonia (). It occurs both biologically and abiologically in chemical industries. Biological nitrogen fixation or ''diazotrophy'' is catalyzed by en ...

. It can be grown as a windbreak. The species thrives in well-drained soils but will do poorly in saline or poorly drained areas. The attractive and dense wood from the tree is used to make specialty furniture while the foliage is used by grazing stock as fodder. The species is

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

and

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

tolerant but will be killed by fire. Trees can live up an age of over 15 years.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4732990 huegeliana Rosids of Western Australia Fagales of Australia Plants described in 1845 Dioecious plants Taxa named by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel