Cape Pillar Sheoak
Allocasuarina crassa
Family Casuarinaceae
About
A shrub or small tree found only in the Cape Pillar area of the Tasman Peninsula and on Tasman Island, both entirely within Tasman National Park — its entire natural range spans just 10km. Listed as rare under Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act, threatened by inappropriate fire and the soil pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi.
How to spot it
A dioecious shrub to small tree, usually 1-2m (occasionally to 14m), with smooth bark and spreading branchlets up to 170mm long bearing scale-like leaves in whorls of 7-10. Female plants carry cylindrical woody cones 15-34mm long. Look for it on the exposed dolerite clifftops around Cape Pillar and Cape Hauy.
Found in
- Tasman National Park
Source: Wikipedia: Allocasuarina crassa
Photo: Murray Fagg (CC BY 3.0 AU) via Wikimedia Commons