''Casuarina cristata'' is an Australian tree of the sheoak 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 ...

known as belah. It is native to a band across inland eastern Australia.

Taxonomy

The Dutch botanist

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 Groni ...

described the belah in 1848, and it still bears its original name. It is called ''Muurrgu'' or ''Murrgu'' in the Yuwaalaraay dialect of the

Gamilaraay The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...

language around Walgett in northwestern New South Wales. Belah is an aboriginal name; other common names include scaly-barked casuarina, scrub she-oak, billa, ngaree, bulloak and swamp oak.

Description

''Belah'' grows as a tree reaching in height and has a DBH of . The tree has a dark greyish brown scaly bark, and its pendulous branches having a weeping habit. The true leaves are tiny scales along the branchlets.

Distribution and habitat

The range is from Clermont in central Queensland south through to Temora in southern New South Wales. It is an important component of the endangered Brigalow ecological community of inland New South Wales and Queensland. Here it is found as a dominant tree with brigalow (''

Acacia harpophylla ''Acacia harpophylla'', commonly known as brigalow, brigalow spearwood or orkor, is an endemic tree of Australia. The Aboriginal Australian group the Gamilaraay peoples know the tree as Barranbaa or Burrii. It is found in central and coasta ...

''), black gidyea ('' A. argyrodendron''), bimble box (''

Eucalyptus populnea ''Eucalyptus populnea'', commonly known as poplar box, bimble box or bimbil box, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk and branches, egg-shaped, elliptic ...

''), Dawson River blackbutt ('' E. cambageana''), '' E. pilligaensis'' and the smaller trees such as wilga (''

Geijera parviflora ''Geijera parviflora'', commonly known as wilga, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to inland parts of eastern Australia. It has drooping branches, linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves, small white flowers ...

'') and false sandalwood (''

Eremophila mitchellii ''Eremophila mitchellii'', known commonly as false sandalwood and several other names, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a glabrous large shrub or small tree with flaky bark, white or ...

'') in open forest over mainly

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

clay plains. Other plants it grows with include bonaree ('' Alectryon oleifolius''), sugarwood (''

Myoporum platycarpum ''Myoporum platycarpum'', known by several common names including sugarwood, false sandalwood and ngural is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is rounded with bright green foliage as a young shrub and roughly fissured, dark gr ...

'') and nelia ('' Acacia loderi''). On limestone-based soils, it may have a dense

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

composed of pearl bluebush ('' Maireana sedifolia'') or black bluebush ('' M. pyramidata'')

Ecology

Belah can reproduce by suckering from its root system, and clonal stands have been recorded. Seedlings only appear after periods of high rainfall.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5050936 cristata Fagales of Australia Trees of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel