Allocasuarina gymnanthera



Allocasuarina gymnanthera is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It is a dioecious shrub or tree that has more or less erect branchlets up to 200 mm long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of six to eight, the fruiting cones 14–40 mm long containing winged seeds (samaras) 4.5–7.0 mm long.

Description
Allocasuarina gymnanthera is a dioecious shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of 2–5 m. Its branchlets are more or less erect, up to 200 mm long, the leaves reduced to erect, scale-like teeth 0.4–0.7 mm long, arranged in whorls of six to eight around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are 5–12 mm long and 0.5–1.0 mm wide. Male flowers are arranged like a string of beads, in spikes 25–60 mm long, with three to five whorls per centimetre (per 0.39 in.), the anthers 0.8–1.4 mm long. Female cones are cylindrical, on a peduncle 3–8 mm long, the mature cones 14–40 mm long and 9–12 mm in diameter, the samaras dark brown to black and 4.5–7.0 mm long.

Taxonomy
Allocasuarina gymnanthera was first described in 1989 by Lawrie Johnson in Flora of Australia. The specific epithet, (gymnanthera) means "naked flowers".

Distribution and habitat
This she-oak grows in open woodland on sandy soil on sandstone ridges between the Pilliga Scrub, Ulan, Baerami, Singleton and Glen Davis in eastern New South Wales.