Allocasuarina robusta
species of plant

Allocasuarina robusta, commonly known as Mount Compass oak-bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to a restricted area of South Australia. It is a monoecious, rarely a dioecious shrub with erect branchlets up to 200 mm (7.9 in) long, the leaves reduced to scales in whorls of five to seven, the fruiting cones 12–20 mm (0.47–0.79 in) long containing winged seeds about 5.5–6.0 mm (0.22–0.24 in) long.
Description
Allocasuarina robusta is a monoecious, rarely a dioecious shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.2–3 m (7.9 in – 9 ft 10.1 in) and has smooth bark. Its branchlets are more or less erect, up to 200 mm (7.9 in) long, the leaves reduced to scale-like teeth 0.6–1 mm (0.024–0.039 in) long, arranged in whorls of five to seven around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls are 7–14 mm (0.28–0.55 in) long and 0.7–1.1 mm (0.028–0.043 in) wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes 5–45 mm (0.20–1.77 in) long, with 5 to 9 whorls per centimetre (per 0.39 in.), the anthers 0.8–1.2 mm (0.031–0.047 in) long. Female cones are sessile or on a peduncle up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long, the mature cones cylindrical, 12–20 mm (0.47–0.79 in) long and 7–12 mm (0.28–0.47 in) in diameter, the winged seeds black and 5.5–6.0 mm (0.22–0.24 in) long.
Taxonomy
Mount Compass oak-bush was first formally described in 1927 by Ellen Dulcie Macklin who gave it the name Casuarina paludosa var. robusta in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia. It was reclassified in 1982 as Allocasuarina pusilla by Lawrie Johnson in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q15376743. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1927 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “Allocasuarina robusta” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.