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Casuarina cunninghamiana

Common name:	River She-Oak	Family:	Casuarinaceae
Author:	Miq.	Botanical references:	200, 265
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Australia - New South Wales, Northern Territories, Victoria.
Habitat:	Usually found by freshwater streams[156, 167] in alluvial sands and loams[167]. It experiences severe frosts in some parts of its range[167].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	0	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	River She-oak [H,B], River Sheoak [P],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Casuarinales. She-oak family
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: Florida.

Physical Characteristics

An evergreen tree growing to 18m. It is hardy to zone 9. It is in leaf all year, in flower from May to June, and the seeds ripen from September to December. The flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required). The plant not is self-fertile. It can fix Nitrogen. We rate it 0/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Woodland, Canopy, By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

Dye Shelterbelt Soil reclamation Soil stabilization Tannin Wood.

Gold, green and grey dyes are obtained from the leaves[156].
The bark can be used as tanbark[269].
The plant forms suckers and is a good soil stabilizer[156]. It is much planted in Egypt for protecting roads from the sand[269]. It is often planted along the sides of streams to protect them from erosion[269].
In suitable climates, the plant is much used in windbreaks, shelterbelts and for land reclamation[269].
Wood - dark, durable, closely grained, nicely marked, not as heavy as that of other members of this genus. Used for flooring, axe handles, firewood, poles etc[156, 269].

Cultivation details

Requires a well-drained moisture-retentive soil in full sun[200]. Succeeds in most soils, whether well-drained or damp, in Australian gardens[157, 167]. The plant is reported to tolerate acid soils, alkaline soils, calcareous soils (perhaps chlorotic), drought, muck, sand dunes, salt, weeds, and wind[269]. Plants tolerate an annual precipitation in the range of 50 to 150cm[269].
This plant tolerates temperatures down to at least -7° c in Australian gardens[157] although this cannot be translated directly to British gardens due to our cooler summers and longer, colder wetter winters. It experiences severe frosts in parts of its range[167] and so some provenances should succeed outdoors in the mildest areas of this country. Plants have survived temperatures of -8° C with no apparent injury. They are said to tolerate up to 50 light frosts per year[269].
Closely related to C. glauca and often hybridises in the wild with that species[265].
This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil micro-organisms, these form nodules on the roots of the plants and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[157, 200].
Dioecious, male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

Propagation

Seed - sow late winter to early summer in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed[138]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in a greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. There are 440,000 - 550,000 seeds per kilo[269].
Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame[157, 200].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HEC] Use, Folk Medicine, etc. from Handbook of Energy Crops by James Duke
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Casuarinaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[138] Bird. R. (Editor) Growing from Seed. Volume 3. Thompson and Morgan. 1989
Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation.

[156] Cribb. A. B. and J. W. Useful Wild Plants in Australia. William Collins Pty Ltd. Sidney 1981 ISBN 0-00-216441-8
A very readable book.

[157] Wrigley. J. W. and Fagg. M. Australian Native Plants. Collins. (Australia) 1988 ISBN 0-7322-0021-0
A lovely book, written in order to encourage Australian gardeners to grow their native plants. A little bit of information for the plant project.

[167] Holliday. I. and Hill. R. A Field Guide to Australian Trees. Frederick Muller Ltd. 1974 ISBN 0-85179-627-3
A well illustrated and very readable book, but it does not contain much information for the plant project.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[265] Carolin. R. & Tindale. M. Flora of the Sydney Region Reed. Australia. 1993 ISBN 0730104001
Concise flora with little beyond an extensive key, species descriptions, very brief habitat description.

[269] Duke. J. Handbook of Energy Crops - 1983
Published only on the Internet, excellent information on a wide range of plants.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
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