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Casuarina
equisetifolia L.
Synonym : Casuarina litorea
L.
Family
: Casuarinaceae
Local Names
: Kattadi, Chavakkamaram,
Australian pine
Flowering
and fruiting period:
July – September
Distribution: Malay Islands, Australia, Pacific
Habitat: Cultivated
IUCN
status:
Least concern
Endemic:
No
Uses: Extensively cultivated
for fuel, erosion control, and as a windbreak, hedge plant, timber yielding,
bonsai material
Key
Characters:
Dioecious trees, to 30 m high, bark
brown, rough, peeling off in vertical strips. Leaves scaly alternating with the
ribs of the upper node. Flowers in spikes; male flowers: in terminal spikes,
pendulous, brown; tepals 2, lanceolate; stamen 1; anther oblong; female
flowers: in axillary spikes, solitary or in pairs, condensed into an ovoid`
cone', shortly stalked; tepals absent; ovary superior. Fruit a carpophores, ovoid;
nutlets compressed; seeds winged.
