Swamp Sheoak

Scientific Name:

Casuarina obesa

Status:

Australian native.

Plant Description:

Tree from 6-15 m tall which frequently produces root suckers. The bark is finely fissured, scaly, grey-brown. The leaves are reduced to minute 1 mm long teeth in whorls of 12-16 on long, jointed, slender, wiry, ribbed, grey-green, branchlets.

Plants are either male or female. Male flowers in elongated spikes, 1.5-6 cm long, with alternating tooth-like bracts. Female flowers in globular to ovoid heads on short lateral branchlets. Fruit of pale yellow-brown to dull grey, winged seed contained in cones, 10-22 mm long and 8-12 mm long with valves well extended from the cone body.

Habitat:

Grows in brackish or saline swampy ground near lakes or rivers. Mainly known from scattered locations in the Wimmera. Also around Karadoc Swamp near Red Cliffs in the Mallee where it has suffered from excessive salinity. Also in WA but probably extinct in NSW.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Wimmera	S1, S2, S3	W1, W2, W3

Comments:

Rarely flowers. Listed as Casuarina glauca in The Handbook of Plants of Victoria Vol. 2 (Willis, 1973) but that is now known to be a separate species. Differs from Belah (Casuarina pauper) in that its reduced leaves (teeth) are generally 12 or more/whorl and erect (non-spreading) and its branchlets are without hairs or only sparingly hairy. Produces a very dense wood suitable for fencing, flooring, wood-turning and fuel.

Related Links

CSIRO Publishing - The Response of six Eucalyptus Species and Casuarina obesa to the Combined Effect of Salinity and Waterlogging (external link). To view the information PDF requires the use of a PDF reader. This can be installed for free from the Adobe website (external link).

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