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Allocasuarina torulosa
Also called Forest She Oak, River Oak, Rose She Oak, Forest Sheoak
Forest-oak is a slender, usually dioecious Australian tree, typically 5 to 20 m tall, with drooping green branchlets and leaves reduced to scales. It is a tough, low-maintenance tree that handles a range of soils and light frosts.
Allocasuarina torulosa, commonly known as forest oak, rose sheoak, river oak or Baker's oak, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a slender, usually dioecious tree that has drooping branchlets up to 140 mm (5.5 in) long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of four or five, and the fruiting cones 15–33 mm (0.6–1 in) long containing winged seeds (samaras) 7–10 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long.
It grows from seed, and cut or broken trees will often regenerate from the trunk.
This is a low-maintenance tree that will grow in a variety of soils and tolerate light frosts. In the USA, it is suitable for USDA hardiness zones 8–11. It may be susceptible to Armillaria and Phytophthora.
Allocasuarina torulosa grows in open forest and on rainforest fringes in moister, more nutrient rich soils than A. littoralis at altitudes from 40 to 1,200 m (130 to 3,940 ft). It is widespread in north-eastern and central-eastern Queensland and on the coast and ranges of New South Wales, as far south as Macquarie Pass and Jenolan Caves. There is also an isolated population on Cape York Peninsula.
The timber is reddish pink to brown. The rose she-oak has the largest contraction along the grain (12%) of any Australian wood and needs to be dried carefully to get full value as a useful timber.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Allocasuarina torulosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
