Belah

Casuarina cristata

''Casuarina cristata'' is an Australian tree of the sheoak family Casuarinaceae known as belah. It is native to a band across inland eastern Australia.
Casuarinaceae - she-oak - Casuarina cristata  Australia,Beach Sheoak,Casuarina cristata,Casuarina equisetifolia,Casuarina glauca,Geotagged,Summer,Swamp she-oak

Appearance

''Belah'' grows as a tree reaching 10–20 m in height and has a DBH of 1 m. The tree has a dark greyish brown scaly bark, and its pendulous branches having a weeping habit. The true leaves are tiny scales along the branchlets.

Distribution

The range is from Clermont in central Queensland south through to Temora in southern New South Wales. It is an important component of the endangered Brigalow ecological community of inland New South Wales and Queensland. Here it is found as a dominant tree with brigalow, black gidyea, bimble box, Dawson River blackbutt, ''E. pilligaensis'' and the smaller trees such as wilga and false sandalwood in open forest over mainly Cenozoic clay plains.

Other plants it grows with include bonaree, sugarwood and nelia. On limestone-based soils, it may have a dense understory composed of pearl bluebush or black bluebush.

Reproduction

Seedlings only appear after periods of high rainfall.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderFagales
FamilyCasuarinaceae
GenusCasuarina
SpeciesC. cristata
Photographed in
Australia