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Allocasuarina is a genus in the flowering plant family Casuarinaceae, found primarily in southern Australia. Commonly called sheoaks or she-oaks, they are notable for their long, wiry foliage, the slender green shoots somewhat resembling pine needles - although sheoaks are actually flowering plants. The leaves are reduced to minute scales, arranged spirally along the shoots. These shoots form a dense, soft mat beneath sheoaks, preventing the development of undergrowth and making sheoak woods remarkably quiet.

Another characteristic feature are the spiny "cones", about the size of an acorn but with a texture more resembling a conifer cone. However, sheoak "cones" are actually a woody fruit.

As with to legumeThe term legume has two closely related meanings in botany, a situation encountered with many botanical common names of useful plants whereby an applied name can refer to either the plant itself, or to the edible fruit (or useful part). Thus, "legume" cans, sheoak roots possess nodules containing symbiotic nitrogen fixingNitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its relatively inert molecular form (N) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds useful for other chemical processes (such as, notably, ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxide). bacteria; together with their highly droughtA drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. Drought is not a purely physical phenomenon, but instead is an interplay between natural water availability and human demands for water supply. adapted foliage, this enables sheoaks to thrive in very poor soil and semi-arid areas. However, sheoaks are much less bushfireTownsville, Australia to prevent bushfires. A bushfire is a wildfire that occurs in the forests, scrubs, woodlands or grasslands of Australia or New Zealand. In the south, bushfires tend to be most common and most severe, during summer and autumn, in drou tolerant than eucalypts.

1 Classification

2 Uses

The hard wood and rich texture makes sheoak wood popular among wood-turners. Sheoak wood is also regarded as an excellent firewood as it burns with very little ash.

Because of its ability to grow and develop extensive root systems in very poor or sandy soils, and to completely cover the ground with its "needles", it is often used to stabilise soils in erosion prone areas, or on sand dunes. Sheoak is also used as an ornamental shrub, although for this purpose the mat of "needles" may become a nuisance and must be carefully considered.