Posts Tagged ‘tree of the month’

Allocasuarina verticillata

Name

allo and casuarina indicating the relationship with the genus casuarina

Casuarina comes from the resemblance of the drooping branches to the feathers of the Cassowary bird.

Distinctive features

Well known for the sound of the wind blowing through it’s branchlets.

In late spring it’s covered with the tiniest red flowers so it looks like a red haze.

General Description

Drooping she-oaks have drooping branches and branchlets that are a bit like really long pine needles. Plants grow fairly quickly once established but look a bit sparse when young. Plants are either male or female, with the female plant bearing spiky cones.

It is a round-headed, small to medium sized tree that grows in a variety of sites. It’s tolerant of sandy, dry soils and coastal salt spray. Although known as a coastal plant, it also grows successfully on the heavy, cracking clays near Bacchus Marsh.

The species used to be known as Casuarina stricta. There’s extensive plantings of another species native to NSW and QLD that look similar but have much smaller cones on the female plant.

In earlier times, a she-oak woodland grew from the western side of the Maribyrnong, from present-day Braybrook to Yarraville, and down to Williamstown. The predominant she-oak was the drooping she-oak, while there was a smaller number of black she-oak. The she-oak woodland was quickly cut down as they made great firewood, leaving us with no she-oak woodlands in the western region of Melbourne.

There were also clumps of she-oaks across the western plains. A story was told of a group that set off from Preston to join the gold rush.  “We camped the first night on Keilor Plains in a clump of she-oak trees. There were many of these about the plains but they have been cut down by bullock drivers for their cattle when the feed was scarce. It is a pity, for it has left the plains so bare.”¹

The drooping she-oak is an excellent shade tree and windbreak but allows soft breezes to penetrate. A mature tree can be over 5 metres tall and almost as wide.

She-oaks fixes nitrogen from the air via nodules on the roots to fertilise soil. The tree is self-mulching and suppresses weeds. You can grow other plants underneath if you rake up the needles and use them elsewhere for mulch. The she-oak needles form a mat that can’t be penetrated by the hard working black bird.

Planting

Don’t use a stake because they weaken Australian plants. Instead grab some rocks and put them against the trunk to hold it down and that will help stop it being blown out of the ground with a strong wind. The rocks mean all the wind in the world will not make any difference and will hold the root ball in the ground. Then once it’s planted add water.
And add some blood and bone, and that’s about it.

Contact Friends of Stony Creek for more information. They also have a small stock of drooping she-oaks available in forestry tubes for $1.50 (small) and $4.00 (large).

Contact: 9332 3889 (After hours only)

Contact Name:  Mr Steve Wilson

On-going Volunteering Opportunities:

1. Planting, weeding and cleaning-up of indigenous plants along the Stony Creek

2. Water monitoring

3. Assisting with school activities

4. Assisting with storm water and planning issues

5. Involvement with the NEIP Plan and process, and coordinating with local planning authorities and community groups

About the Organisation: The Friends of Stony Creek conduct plantings, clean-ups, weeding, tours and talks. We issue and distribute a newsletter and a planting calendar, and support other ‘friends’ groups and community groups. We aim to raise the profile of the Creek for the purpose of recreation and education. We influence local councils, Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria, and industry to appreciate the importance of our Creek.

1. The Loddon Aborigines by Edgar Morrison

Black wattle (acacia mearnsii) is a large evergreen shrub or small tree. It grows 6-10 metres, but at times attaining 15-25 metres with a spreading rounded crown. Open grown specimens often have mutiples branches and crooked trunk, but if grown in forest formation it will have a straight stem.

Black wattle is classified as an invasive species in non-native countries. As it’s native to Australia, it’s not classified as an invasive species here. The species is indigenous to southeasten Australia and Tasmania.

It’s grown extensively overseas as it’s a commercial source of tannin. Tannin is used in the production of soft leather. Australia doesn’t produce its own tannin, but gets it from South Africa. South Africa has extensive plantings of, you guessed it, black wattle.

It attracts birds, is fast growing and is fire retardant. It plays an important role in the Australian ecosystem. It’s classified as a pioneer plant as it binds the soil following bushfires. As it’s a leguminous plant, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. The black wattle has bacterial nodules on its expansive root system, providing nitrogen to other woodland species and helping to naturally regenerate Australian bushland after fires.

The black wattle root system has a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi is eaten by marsupial animals, and the fungal spores are spread by the animal dropping to perpetuate the symbiotic relationship between the black wattle and mycorrhizal fungi.

The cracks and crevices in the wattle’s bark are home for many insects and invertebrates. Various grubs, such as wood moths make the black wattle bark their home and are eaten by the black cockatoo. In winter, insects, birds and marsupials feed on the nectar. In return the insects, birds and marsupials play an important predatory role in eating scarab beetles and other pasture pest that can cause tree die back.

Black wattles form the framework vegetation on so-called “Hill-topping” sites. They are often isolated remnant pockets of native vegetation amongst a lower sea of exotic pasture. These “Hill topping” sites are critical habitat for male butterflies to attract females for mating, which then lay their eggs under the wattle’s bark elsewhere but still within close proximity. It’s the only acceptable mating site in the area for these butterflies.

Black wattle flowers provide very nitrogen rich pollen with no nectar. They attract pollen-feeding birds such as our Wattle Birds, Yellow Throated Honey Eaters and New Holland Honey Eaters. The protein rich nectar in the leaf axials is very sustaining for nurturing the growth of juvenile nestlings and young invertebrates, e.g. ants.

The wood is hard but moderately easy to work and takes a good polish. It is used for house poles, mine timber, tool handles, cabinetwork, joinery, flooring, construction timber, matchwood, hardboard, and paper pulp. It is an excellent fuelwood and charcoal.