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SWAMP OAK FACTS |
Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License
Common Name
Swamp Oak
Description
The Swamp Oak is a tree from 6-15 m tall which frequently produces root suckers. The bark is finely fissured, scaly, grey-brown. The leaves are reduced to minute 1 mm long teeth in whorls of 12-16 on long, jointed, slender, wiry, ribbed, grey-green, branchlets.
Plants are either male or female. Male flowers in elongated spikes, 1.5-6 cm long, with alternating tooth-like bracts. Female flowers in globular to ovoid heads on short lateral branchlets. Fruit of pale yellow-brown to dull grey, winged seed contained in cones, 10-22 mm long and 8-12 mm long with valves well extended from the cone body.
Habitat
Grows in brackish or saline swampy ground near lakes or rivers.
Distribution
native to south west parts of Western Australia, with a much more restricted occurrence in Victoria and New South Wales. In Victoria mainly known from scattered locations in the Wimmera. Also around Karadoc Swamp near Red Cliffs in the Mallee where it has suffered from excessive salinity.
Growth Characteristics
Height (m): 10 - 15
Spread (m): 5 - 10
Soil Texture: sand, loam, clay, limestone
Soil pH: acid soils, neutral soils, alkaliine soils
Frost Sensitivity: resistant
Minimum Rainfall (mm): 350
Flower Colour: insignificant
Flower Season: winter, spring
(source: SA State Flora Catalog)
Wildlife Interest
birds, insects
Classification
| Class: | Magnoliopsida | | Order: | Fagales | | Family: | Casuarinaceae | | Genus: | Casuarina | | Species: | obesa | | Common Name: | Swamp Oak |
Relatives in same Genus
Casuarina pauper
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.jpg "Casuarina obesa")