Allocasuarina corniculata - Flickr - Kevin Thiele

''Allocasuarina corniculata'' 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 Pacifi ...

and is endemic to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It is an erect to spreading,

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

shrub that has more or less erect branchlets, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of six to eleven, the mature fruiting cones long containing winged seeds (samaras) long.

Description

''Allocasuarina corniculata'' is an erect to spreading, dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of . 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 eleven 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 10 to 16 per centimetre (per 0.39 in.), the

anthers The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

long. Female cones are red,

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

or on a peduncle up to long. Mature cones are long and in diameter with sharply pointed, curved awns near the base of the

bracteoles In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

, but that falls off as the cone matures. The samaras are reddish brown and long.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1876 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

who gave it the name ''Casuarina corniculata'' in his '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'', from specimens collected near Mount Churchman by

Jess Young Jess Young (Jesse) (1851–1909) was an English traveller. He is best known as an explorer who accompanied Ernest Giles during his fourth expedition, making some important botanical collections along the way. Life He was a younger son of Richard ...

. It was reclassified in 1982 as ''Allocasuarina campestris'' by

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, FAA, (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Garden ...

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, Adelaide, North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''corniculata'') means "with a small, hornlike appendage".

Distribution and habitat

This sheoak grows in tall heath on sandplains between Wubin and Norseman 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 reli ...

, Coolgardie,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

, Mallee and Murchison bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

''Allocasuarina corniculata'' 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 Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15375742 corniculata Rosids of Western Australia Fagales of Australia Dioecious plants Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1876