Leaf _Casuarina litorea (Leaf _Casuarina litorea)
Description
Casuarina equisetifolia is a deciduous tree that occurs in open, coastal habitats including sand beaches, rocky coasts and sand dunes. Trees can grow to over 100 ft. (30.5 m) in height. It is native to Australia and southeast Asia and was introduced into Florida in the late 1800’s. The angiosperm family, Casuarinaceae, includes 4 genera and 82 species (Woodall and Geary 1985). All Casuarina species have evergreen, needlelike foliage and woody cones. They are fairly stout-trunked, rough-barked, fast-growing trees with nearly erect or semi-spreading main branches and slim branchlets. The tufts of deciduous, jointed, grooved, green twigs resemble pine needles but separate easily at the nodes where the true leaves are seen as tiny, pointed teeth ringing the joint (Morton 1980). Their midveins run down to the next node and form more or less distinct ribs. Such scales cannot perform most of the functions of normal leaves. These are taken over by the needles. However, the scales are helpful in an environment where fresh water is scarce; the lack of typical leaves and the structure of the needles retard the escape of water. (Barrett 1956) Male flowers are borne in slender, cylindrical spikes at the twig tips. Each flower is subtended by 3 or 4 bracts and consists of a single stamen. The female flowers occur in lateral heads on non-shedding branchlets and the fruits form woody cones when ripe. In moist soils at certain sites in Australia and elsewhere, one third or more of the trees are well nodulated by nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Morton 1980, Burger 1971, Kunkel 1978, Langeland 1988, Woodall and Geary 1985, Long and Lakela 1971).
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Casuarinales
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Family: Casuarinaceae
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Genus: Casuarina
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