''Allocasuarina monilifera'', commonly known as necklace 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 Pacifi ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to Tasmania. It is usually a

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

, low-growing shrub that has branchlets up to long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of six to nine, the fruiting cones long containing winged seeds long.

Description

''Allocasuarina monilifera'' is usually a monoecious shrub that typically grows to high and wide. Its branchlets are long, the leaves reduced to erect to slightly spreading, scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of six to nine around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls are long, wide and are slightly waxy. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, 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 cylindrical, on a peduncle long. Mature cones are long and in diameter containing winged seeds long.

Taxonomy

Necklace sheoak was first formally described in 1967 by Lawrie Johnson who gave it the name ''Casuarina monilifera'' ''The Student's Flora of Tasmamia'' from specimens he collected at

Eaglehawk Neck Eaglehawk Neck, officially Teralina / Eaglehawk Neck, is a narrow isthmus that connects the Tasman Peninsula with the Forestier Peninsula, and hence to mainland Tasmania, Australia. The locality of Eaglehawk Neck is in the local government are ...

in 1949. In 1982, Johnson transferred the species to ''Allocasuarina'' as ''A. monilifera'' 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, (''monilifera'') means "necklace-bearing".

Distribution and habitat

''Allocasuarina monilifera'' grows in heath and woodland in dry coastal areas of northern and eastern Tasmania, on Flinders Island and the islands of the

Kent Group The Kent Group are a grouping of six granite islands located in Bass Strait, north-west of the Furneaux Group in Tasmania, Australia. Collectively, the group is comprised within the Kent Group National Park. The islands were named Kent's Group ...

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

References

External links

Occurrence data for ''Allocasuarina monilifera''
from The Australasian Virtual Herbarium {{Taxonbar, from=Q15375678 monilifera Endemic flora of Tasmania Fagales of Australia Plants described in 1982 Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson