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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.