Allocasuarina fibrosa explained

Allocasuarina fibrosa, commonly known as woolly sheoak, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a dioecious shrub that has branchlets long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of four, and the mature fruiting cones long containing winged seeds (samaras) long.

Description

Allocasuarina fibrosa is a dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its branchlets are long, the leaves reduced to erect, scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of four around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are long. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, the anthers long. Female cones are more or less cylindrical to spherical and covered with hairs, mature cones long and in diameter, often with awn-like projections up to long. The samaras brown to black and long. Flowering occurs in July and August. This sheoak is similar to Allocasuarina grevilleoides.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1928 by Charles Gardner who gave it the name Casuarina fibrosa in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, from specimens he collected near Tammin in 1926.[3] It was reclassified in 1982 as Allocasuarina fibrosa by Lawrie Johnson in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.[4] The specific epithet (fibrosa) refers to the long fibres on the cones.[5]

Distribution and habitat

Woolly sheoak grows in tall, open heath in sandy soil over laterite and is only known from several populations near Tammin and Quairading in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of south-western Western Australia.[6]

Conservation status

Allocasuarina fibrosa is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and as "Threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is in danger of extinction.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Allocasuarina fibrosa . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 27 May 2023.
  2. Gardner . Charles A. . Contributiones Florae Australiae Occidentalis, VI. . Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia . 1928 . 13 . 61–62 . 27 May 2023.
  3. Web site: Casuarina fibrosa. APNI. 21 May 2023.
  4. Web site: Allocasuarina fibrosa. APNI. 27 May 2023.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 198 . 3rd.
  6. Web site: Approved Conservation Advice for Allocasuarina fibrosa (Woolly Sheoak) . Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water . 27 May 2023.
  7. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. 27 May 2023.