Allocasuarina helmsii explained

Allocasuarina helmsii is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to the south-western Australia. It is a dioecious shrub that erect branchlets, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of five or six, and mature fruiting cones long containing winged seeds (samaras) long.

Description

Allocasuarina helmsii is a dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its branchlets are erect, up to long, the leaves reduced to erect, scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of five or six around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are long and wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes long, the anthers long. Female cones are usually cylindrical, softly-hairy or rusty-hairy at first, and sessile or on a peduncle up to long. Mature cones are long and in diameter, the samaras mid-brown and long.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1920 by Alfred James Ewart and M. Gordon who gave it the name Casuarina helmsii in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, from specimens collected by Richard Helms near Gnarlbine in 1886.[3] [4] It was reclassified in 1982 as Allocasuarina helmsii by Lawrie Johnson in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.[5] The specific epithet (helmsii) honours the collector of the type specimens.[6]

Distribution and habitat

Allocasuarina helmsii grows in mallee woodland and tall heath between Nungarin in Western Australia, and north-western South Australia, with disjunct populations on Dirk Hartog Island and on the northern Eyre Peninsula.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Allocasuarina helmsii . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 6 June 2023.
  2. Web site: Allocasuarina helmsii . State Herbarium of South Australia . 6 June 2023.
  3. Web site: Casuarina helmsii. APNI. 6 June 2023.
  4. Ewart . Alfred J. . Gordon . M. . Contributions to the Flora of Australia, No. 28. . Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria . 1920 . 32 . 192–193 . 6 June 2023.
  5. Web site: Allocasuarina helmsii. APNI. 21 May 2023.
  6. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 215 . 3rd.