Allocasuarina ramosissima explained

Allocasuarina ramosissima 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 with its leaves reduced to overlapping scales in whorls of five, the mature fruiting cones sessile and long, containing winged seeds long.

Description

Allocasuarina ramosissima is a dioecious, somewhat divaricate shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its branchlets are erect long, the leaves reduced to overlapping scale-like teeth long, arranged in whorls of five around the needle-like branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls are mostly long and wide. Male flowers are arranged in spike-like heads long, the anthers long. Female cones are sessile, the mature cones long and in diameter, containing dark brown winged seeds long.[1]

Taxonomy

This sheoak was first formally described in 1964 by Charles Gardner who gave it the name Casuarina ramosissima in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected near Dandaragan.[2] [3] It was reclassified in 1982 as Allocasuarina ramosissima by Lawrie Johnson in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.[4] The specific epithet (ramosissima) means "much branched".[5]

Distribution and habitat

Allocasuarina ramosissima grows in heath on sand in the BadgingarraDandaragan area in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Allocasuarina ramosissima . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 2 August 2023.
  2. Web site: Casuarina ramosissima. APNI. 4 August 2023.
  3. Gardner . Charles A. . Contributiones Florae Australiae Occidentalis, XIII. . Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia . 1964 . 47 . 2 . 54 . 4 August 2023.
  4. Web site: Allocasuarina ramosissima. APNI. 4 August 2023.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 291 . 3rd.