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Karri oak (Allocasuarina decussata)

Description

Karri oak usually grows as a medium tree 8–15 metres high, although in harsh, exposed situations in places like the top of Bluff Knoll it is a stunted shrub or poorly–formed tree in shrubland. As with other members of the family Casuarinaceae, the foliage consists of wiry green branchlets called cladodes with rings of minute leaf scales. In this species, the branchlets are about 14 cm long, roughly square or X–shaped in cross section, with four scale-teeth in each ring. The rings of scale–leaves are 7–9 mm apart. Separate male and female flowers form on the same individual plant. The fruiting structure is a woody cone, shaped like a short cylinder with its diameter roughly equal to or slightly greater than its length. The fruit is a winged samara 7–9 mm long. It often grows in association with Acacia pentadenia. and Asplenium aethiopicum often grows as an epiphyte on its branches.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum:

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Fagales

            • Family: Casuarinaceae

              • Genus: Allocasuarina