About Allocasuarina distyla (Vent.) L.A.S.Johnson
Allocasuarina distyla, commonly known as scrub she-oak, is a dioecious shrub that typically reaches 1 to 3 metres (3 feet 3 inches to 9 feet 10 inches) in height, and usually has smooth bark. Its more or less erect branchlets can grow up to 350 millimetres (14 inches) long. Its leaves are reduced to erect, scale-like teeth 0.5 to 1.2 millimetres (0.020 to 0.047 inches) long, arranged in whorls of six to eight around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls, called "articles", are 10 to 20 millimetres (0.39 to 0.79 inches) long and 0.8 to 1.5 millimetres (0.031 to 0.059 inches) wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes 15 to 50 millimetres (0.59 to 1.97 inches) long, with 4.5 to 6.5 whorls per centimetre (per 0.39 inch), and anthers 0.8 to 1.3 millimetres (0.031 to 0.051 inches) long. Female cones are cylindrical, borne on a peduncle 2 to 15 millimetres (0.079 to 0.591 inches) long, and the peduncle is sometimes longer. Mature cones measure 13 to 35 millimetres (0.51 to 1.38 inches) long and 11 to 22 millimetres (0.43 to 0.87 inches) in diameter. The winged seeds known as samaras are dark brown to black, and 4 to 8 millimetres (0.16 to 0.31 inches) long. Hybrids between this species and A. littoralis are common in the area between Broken Bay and Port Hacking. This species grows in tall heath on sandstone ridges along the coast of New South Wales, Australia, between Port Stephens and Eden, and extends inland as far as Wollemi National Park and Cooma.
