''Allocasuarina simulans'', commonly known as Nabiac casuarina, 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 a restricted part of eastern New South Wales. It is a usually a

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 with branchlets up to long, the leaves reduced to scales in

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral d ...

of six, the fruiting cones long containing winged seeds long.

Description

''Allocasuarina simulans'' is a dioecious, rarely 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 ...

shrub that typically grows to a height of and mainly has smooth bark. Its branchlets are up to long, the leaves reduced to erect, often overlapping, scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of six around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls are long and wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, with about four whorls 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 ...

about long. Female cones are borne on a peduncle long, the mature cones long and in diameter, the winged seeds long. Nabiac casuarina resembles ''

Allocasuarina distyla ''Allocasuarina distyla'', commonly known as scrub she-oak, is a shrub or small tree of the She-oak family Casuarinaceae endemic to New South Wales. Description This dioecious shrub or small tree will typically grow to a height of tall, or 7 me ...

'', but is usually more slender.

Taxonomy

''Allocasuarina simulans'' was first formally described in 1989 by Lawrie Johnson in '' Flora of Australia'' from specimens collected at an old airstrip near

Nabiac Nabiac is a small town on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia in Mid-Coast Council. It is north-west of Forster, New South Wales, Forster, and south of Taree, New South Wales, Taree. At the , the population of Nabiac was 1,294. Nabia ...

in 1975. The specific epithet, (''simulans'') means "imitating" or "resembling".

Distribution and habitat

This she-oak is only known from near

Myall Lakes Myalls are any of a group of closely related and very similar species of ''Acacia'': * ''Acacia binervia ''Acacia binervia'', commonly known as the coast myall, is a wattle native to New South Wales and Victoria. It can grow as a shrub or as a t ...

, where it grows in sandy heath, shrubland and open woodland between

Booti Booti National Park Booti Booti National Park is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, , by road, north-north-east of Sydney. The holiday town of Forster-Tuncurry lies immediately to the north. History The first European to inhabit the area was a Captain ...

and Nabiac in eastern New South Wales.

Conservation status

Nabiac casuarina is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and the New South Wales Government '' Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016''. The main threats to the species include disturbance from sand mining, inappropriate fire regimes and weed invasion, especially by exotic species such as ''

Lantana camara ''Lantana camara'' (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduc ...

''.

References

External links

Occurrence data for ''Allocasuarina simulans''
from The Australasian Virtual Herbarium {{Taxonbar, from=Q15375632 simulans Fagales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Trees of Australia Plants described in 1989 Dioecious plants Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson