Casuarina cunninghamiana - River Oak, River Sheoak, Creek Oak or Fire Oak is a species of Casuarina, native to New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. The River Oak is an attractive evergreen tree with fine greyish green needle-like foliage that grows to a height of 30 metres (100 ft) with a spread of about 6 metres. The trunk is usually erect, with dense rough bark. Flowers are reddish-brown in the male and red in the female. Cones are small, rectangular and about 1 centimetre across.
Trees are usually found in sunny locations along stream banks and swampy areas. It’s widely recognised as an important tree for stabilising riverbanks and for soil erosion prevention accepting wet and dry soils. The foliage is quite palatable to stock. Casuarina cunninghamiana is frost tolerant down to around -7 °C and is widely used effectively as a screening plant. It is useful on windy sites and is also suited to coastal areas. C. cunninghamiana has been introduced into several other countries for the purpose of soil stabilisation.
References
- “Australian Native Plants” by John W. Wrigley and Murray Fagg, 4th edition, Reed, 1997
External links
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Last updated on Tuesday October 07, 2008 at 20:42:26 PDT (GMT -0700)
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