Casuarina Equisetifolia Fruits

''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the family, but has since been split into four genera (see: Casuarinaceae).Flora of Australia
''Casuarina''
/ref>

They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to tall. The slender, green to grey-green twigs bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 5–20. The apetalous flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences. Most species are dioecious, but a few are monoecious. The fruit is a woody, oval structure superficially resembling a conifer cone, made up of numerous carpels, each containing a single seed with a small wing. The generic name is derived from the Malay word for the cassowary, ''kasuari'', alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage, though the tree is called ''ru'' in Modern Malay.

Karen Louise Wilson and Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson distinguish the two very closely related genera, ''Casuarina'' and ''Allocasuarina'' on the basis of:
*''Casuarina'': the mature samaras being grey or yellow brown, and dull; cone bracteoles thinly woody, prominent, extending well beyond cone body, with no dorsal protuberance;
*''Allocasuarina'': the mature samaras being red brown to black, and shiny; cone bracteoles thickly woody and convex, mostly extending only slightly beyond cone body, and usually with a separate angular, divided or spiny dorsal protuberance.

Ecology

''Casuarina'' species are a food source of the larvae of hepialid moths; members of the genus ''Aenetus'', including '' A. lewinii'' and '' A. splendens'', burrow horizontally into the trunk then vertically down. ''Endoclita malabaricus'' also feeds on ''Casuarina''. The noctuid turnip moth is also recorded feeding on ''Casuarina''.

Pedunculagin, casuarictin, strictinin, casuarinin and casuariin are ellagitannins found in the species within the genus.

Invasive species

'' C. cunninghamiana'', '' C. glauca'' and '' C. equisetifolia'' have become naturalized in many countries, including Argentina, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, China, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Mauritius, Kenya, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, the Bahamas, and Uruguay. They are considered an invasive speciesUSFS FEIS
''Casuarina''
/ref>USDA Forest service

/ref> in the United States, especially in southern Florida where they have nearly quadrupled in number between 1993 and 2005 and are called the Australian pine.
''C. equisetifolia'' is widespread in the Hawaiian Islands where it grows both on the seashore in dry, salty, calcareous soils and up in the mountains in high rainfall areas on volcanic soils. It is also an invasive plant in Bermuda, where it was introduced to replace the '' Juniperus bermudiana'' windbreaks killed by a scale insect in the 1940s.

Species List

''Casuarina'' comprises the following species:
* ''Casuarina collina'' Poiss. ex Pancher & Sebert
* '' Casuarina cristata'' Miq. (northeastern Australia: Queensland, New South Wales).
* ''Casuarina cunninghamiana'' Miq. – river she-oak (northern and eastern Australia: Northern Territory to New South Wales)
* ''Casuarina equisetifolia'' L. – beach she-oak, common ironwood, Australian pine (Florida),IFAS
SRFer Mapserver
casuarina, whistling pine (northern Australia, southeastern Asia, doubtfully native to Madagascar), ঝাউ in বাংলা (Bengali), ಗಾಳಿ ಮರ (gaali mara) in Kannada.
* ''Casuarina glauca'' Sieber ex Spreng. grey she-oak, longleaf ironwood, saltmarsh ironwood, swamp oak (New South Wales)
* ''Casuarina grandis'' L.A.S.Johnson (New Guinea)
* ''Casuarina junghuhniana'' Miq. (Indonesia)
* ''Casuarina obesa'' Miq. (southern Australia: southwestern Western Australia, New South Wales ne site, now extirpated Victoria)
* ''Casuarina oligodon'' L.A.S.Johnson (New Guinea)
* '' Casuarina orophila'' L.A.S.Johnson
* ''Casuarina pauper'' F.Muell. ex L.A.S.Johnson (Australia)
* ''Casuarina potamophila'' Schltr.
* ''Casuarina tenella'' Schltr.
* '' Casuarina teres'' Schltr.

Species names with uncertain taxonomic status

The status of the following species is unresolved:
* ''Casuarina defungens'' L.A.S. Johnson
* ''Casuarina hexagona'' Dehnh.
* ''Casuarina litorea'' Rumph.
* ''Casuarina lucida'' Dehnh.
* ''Casuarina prisea'' Miq.

Formerly placed here

* '' Allocasuarina acuaria'' (F. Muell.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. acuaria'' F.Muell.)
* ''Allocasuarina acutivalvis'' (F. Muell.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. acutivalvis'' F.Muell.)
* ''Allocasuarina campestris'' (Diels) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. campestris'' Diels)
* ''Allocasuarina corniculata'' (F.Muell.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. corniculata'' F.Muell.)
* ''Allocasuarina decussata'' (Benth.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. decussata'' Benth.)
* ''Allocasuarina distyla'' (Vent.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. distyla'' Vent.)
* ''Allocasuarina drummondiana'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. drummondiana'' Miq.)
* '' Allocasuarina fibrosa'' (C.A.Gardner) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. fibrosa'' C.A.Gardner)
* '' Allocasuarina fraseriana'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. fraseriana'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina grevilleoides'' (Diels) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. grevilleoides'' Diels)
* ''Allocasuarina helmsii'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. huegeliana'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina humilis'' (Otto & A. Dietr.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. humilis'' Otto & A.Dietr.)
* ''Allocasuarina inophloia'' (F. Muell. & F. M. Bailey) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. inophloia'' F.Muell. & F.M.Bailey)
* ''Allocasuarina lehmanniana'' subsp. ''lehmanniana'' (as ''C. baxteriana'' Miq. or ''C. lehmanniana'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina littoralis'' (Salisb.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. littoralis'' Salisb. or ''C. suberosa'' Otto & A.Dietr.)
* ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' (R.T.Baker) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. luehmannii'' R.T.Baker)
* '' Allocasuarina muelleriana'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. muelleriana'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina nana'' (Sieber ex Spreng.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. nana'' Sieber ex Spreng.)
* ''Allocasuarina paludosa'' (Sieber ex Spreng.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. paludosa'' Sieber ex Spreng.)
* ''Allocasuarina pusilla'' (Macklin) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. pusilla'' Macklin)
* ''Allocasuarina thuyoides'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. thuyoides'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina torulosa'' (Aiton) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. tenuissima'' Sieber ex Spreng. or ''C. torulosa'' Aiton)
* ''Allocasuarina trichodon'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. trichodon'' Miq.)
* ''Allocasuarina verticillata'' (Lam.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. quadrivalvis'' Labill., ''C. stricta'' Aiton or ''C. verticillata'' Lam.)
* ''Gymnostoma deplancheanum'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. deplancheana'' Miq.)
* ''Gymnostoma nodiflorum'' (Thunb.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. angulata'' J.Poiss. or ''C. nodiflora'' Thunb.)
* ''Gymnostoma papuanum'' (S. Moore) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. papuana'' S.Moore)
* ''Gymnostoma rumphianum'' (Miq.) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. rumphiana'' Miq.)
* ''Gymnostoma sumatranum'' (Jungh. ex de Vriese) L.A.S.Johnson (as ''C. sumatrana'' Jungh. ex de Vriese)

References

External Links

*

{{Taxonbar, from=Q756005

Fagales genera