Desert Oak

About

A slow-growing, long-lived tree of Central Australia's sand dune country, known to the Anangu as kurkara, reaching 10-16 m with deeply furrowed corky bark and drooping, sheoak-like foliage. Mature desert oak woodlands are a defining feature of the plains around Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

How to spot it

Thick, deeply furrowed corky bark on mature trees; long drooping branchlets to 500 mm with tiny scale leaves in whorls of four; cylindrical woody cones present year-round. Young trees are narrow and spire-like before broadening with age.

Found in

• Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park