“Casuarina Pine Cone”
Day 63 of 366 Day Project
“Magic is everywhere, explore & be amazed everyday!”
The footpaths along the beach circuit are covered with these cute little pinecones. I decided to bring some home, explore a little and research. This is what I found.
They are from a Casuarina tree which is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, southeast Asia, and islands of the western Pacific Ocean.
They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to 35 m tall. The foliage consists of slender, much-branched green to grey-green twigs bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 5–20. The flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences; the flowers are simple spikes. The fruit is a woody, oval structure superficially resembling a conifer cone made up of numerous carpels each containing a single seed with a small wing.
Casuarinas are commonly known as the she-oak, sheoak, ironwood, or beefwood, and are usually found in tropical and subtropical areas throughout the world. The tree has delicate, slender ultimate branches and leaves that are no more than scales, making the tree look more like a wispy conifer. The plants are very tolerant of windswept locations.
Recent Comments