Casuarina cristata
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Casuarina cristata | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Casuarinaceae |
| Genus: | Casuarina |
| Species: | C. cristata |
| Binomial name | |
| Casuarina cristata | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Casuarina cristata, commonly known as belah or muurrgu,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to inland eastern Australia. It is a tree with fissured or scaly bark, sometimes drooping branchlets, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of 8 to 12, the fruit 13–18 mm (0.5–0.7 in) long containing winged seeds (samaras) 6.0–10.5 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long.
Casuarina cristata is a dioecious tree that typically grows to a height of 10–20 m (33–66 ft), has a DBH of up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in), and often produces suckers. Its bark is finely fissured or scaly and dark greyish brown. The branchlets are often drooping, up to 250 mm (9.8 in) long, the leaves reduced to scale-like teeth 0.5–0.7 mm (0.02–0.03 in) long, arranged in whorls of 8 to 12 around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are 8–17 mm (0.3–0.7 in) long and 0.6–0.9 mm (0.02–0.04 in) wide. The flowers on male trees are arranged in spikes 13–50 mm (0.5–2.0 in) long, the anthers 0.8–1.1 mm (0.03–0.04 in) long. The female cones are covered with rusty hairs when young, later glabrous, on a peduncle 1–14 mm (0.04–0.6 in) long. The mature cones are usually 13–18 mm (0.5–0.7 in) long and 10–16 mm (0.4–0.6 in) in diameter, the samaras 6.0–10.5 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long.[2][3][4][5]
Taxonomy
Casuarina cristata was first formally described in 1848 by Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in his book Revisio critica Casuarinarum from specimens collected by Allan Cunningham near the Lachlan River.[6] The specific epithet cristata means 'crested', possibly referring to the long, pointed bracteoles on the cones.[4] The tree is called muurrgu or murrgu in the Yuwaalaraay dialect of the Gamilaraay language around Walgett in northwestern New South Wales.[2] Other common names include scaly-barked casuarina, scrub she-oak, billa, ngaree, bulloak and swamp oak.[5]