Casuarina glauca Sieber ex Spreng.

Gray SheOak; Suckering Australian Pine

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Gray SheOak is an introduced tree in the She-Oak family (Casuarinaceae). It is native to the east coast of Australia. In Alabama it has been collected at one site on a roadside adjacent to a marsh in Baldwin County. It its native habitat Gray SheOak grows near brackish water along estuaries and bays. Gray SheOak is a medium sized evergreen tree reaching 20-60 feet in height. It often forms thickets from root suckers. The bark is gray brown and scaly, with shallow fissures. The branches are thin, segmented, drooping, glabrous, green in color, and sometimes glaucous. The branch segments are known as articles, and are thicker at their apex than at the base. Leaves are reduced to whorls of 10-20 small teeth at the articles. Two types of branches are produced: persistent branchlets and deciduous branchlets. Leaves on persistent branches are reduced to long, curved teeth, those on the deciduous branches are reduced to small scales that soon wither but remain attached to the stem. Flowers are unisexual with staminate and pistillate flowers produced on different plants. The staminate inflorescence is terminal, drooping, brown in color, and pubescent. The pistillate inflorescence axillary, ball shaped and red in color. The fruit is a small winged samara formed in a woody cone-like cluster. Gray SheOak is listed as an invasive plant species in Florida where it forms dense stands excluding other vegetation. Several forms, including dwarf cultivars are commonly sold by nurseries.—A. Diamond

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Not Native FACU (NWPL)

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