Allocasuarina paradoxa



Allocasuarina paradoxa  is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to Victoria. It is a dioecious or monoecious shrub that has branchlets up to 150 mm long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of seven to eleven, the fruiting cones 13–25 mm long containing winged seeds 4–8 mm long.

Description
Allocasuarina paradoxa is a dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–4 m and has smooth bark. Its branchlets are more or less erect, up to 150 mm long, the leaves reduced to erect to slightly spreading, scale-like teeth 0.4–0.8 mm long, arranged in whorls of six or seven around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls (the "articles") are 5–12 mm long, 0.7–1 mm wide and have a waxy covering. Male flowers are arranged in spikes 10–40 mm long, the anthers 0.7–0.8 mm long. Female cones are cylindrical, on a peduncle 2–6 mm long. Mature cones are 13–35 mm long and 7–9 mm in diameter, the samaras 4.5–5.5 mm long.

Taxonomy
This she-oak was first formally described in 1931 by Ellen Dulcie Macklin who gave it the name Casuarina paradoxa in the Kew Bulletin. It was reclassified in 1982 as Allocasuarina paradoxa by Lawrie Johnson in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

Distribution and habitat
Allocasuarina paradoxa grows in tall heath in the Grampians National Park and between Melbourne and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria.