Casuarina nana flowers

[Joel]

Just a few notes from a pedantic.
*Allocasuarina nana
*Allocasuarina distyla
*Allocasuarina nana is not in any way at any time sensitive to frost. Wild populations are routinely covered in snow.
*There are no populations of Allocasuarina nana native to the Terrey Hills area. Squizzy was referring to Harvest Native Seeds, a local seed supplier and nursery that predominantly sells to councils and bush revegetators though will sell excess stock to members of the public.

*EDIT* Apparently there are populations of Allocasuarina nana at Terrey Hills. Jocelyn Howell collected some herbarium specimens in 1988. http://biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences/ ... ab_mapView

Good work sussing out this species, Rory. It has been on my radar for years (along with Allocasuarina inophloia) but I never got any further than sourcing seed. The fact it flowers at such a young age and the thickness of the stems make me wonder if they are cuttings rather than seed grown. Good luck with it and keep us updated!

Squizzy, hit me up if you'd like to try some seed.

[Rory]

Hi Joel,

Thanks a heap for that post. Very informative!
Oh my, I am definitely in the same boat with you as wanting inophloia... My collection could sorely do with a hairy casuarina.
I've been trying to get them for ages too. I gave up because it was all too hard.
It's definitely the last casuarina left in my 'must have' list.

The nurseryman seemed a really nice and honest guy. He definetly said they were grown from seed.
They were less than a mm thick when I got them and about 5cm tall. I do not think they were cuttings.
But I'm no scholar. He gave me about 10 free starters of other material he thought would make good bonsai material too.

I took a bit of a closer look the night I measured the nodes and was a bit presumptuous of their growth.
Only a few are literally pencil thickness. Others are about 2-3mm at the base. I can say that the batch with a sightly heavier mix actually haven't grown as well as the lighter mix, but about a 1/3 less vigorous. I made the mistake of not heckling properly because the stronger growing ones had grown over into the other pots growing space making them look similar.

There are about 4 of the 16 with some awesome growth habits that grow like the photo Gavin posted.

From memory when I originally took them out of the seedling containers they didn't look like cuttings. I'll take a better look if I repot them in November. I'm tempted to let them grow for another year but I'll see how I go for time.

[shibui]

inophloia has not grown well here. I managed to germinate a few of the seeds I obtained from National botanic gardens in Canberra but they did not do well and died without amounting to anything.
My neighbour has/had one in their garden that got to 2mtall and trunk 10cm thick. Great hairy trunk but it also never looked completely healthy. I think it has since died.

[Rory]

I think I might have been a bit too rough on repotting these.

All the stock that was thicker than a pencil have survived. Some of them that were less than pencil thickness aren't looking good. Going forward I wont group seedlings together in the same pot again ; the roots get too tangled and I may have killed some from trying to separate them. Bugger.... one that died in particular was very rugged and wild in its growth. I might leave these for a year or so before trunk chopping.

[GavinG]

They've been more fragile than C. littoralis and C. torulosa for me - very sensitive I think to root rot. Stumble on for a couple of years, tease you by looking interesting, then flake out. They don't bark up well, but some of them have some lovely fluid movement naturally - it's a pity. If anyone knows the secret, please tell.

Gavin

[Rory]

They've been more fragile than C. littoralis and C. torulosa for me - very sensitive I think to root rot. Stumble on for a couple of years, tease you by looking interesting, then flake out. They don't bark up well, but some of them have some lovely fluid movement naturally - it's a pity. If anyone knows the secret, please tell.

Gavin

Hi Gav....
thanks for your thoughts

I was very rough on the roots of the younger seedlings and performed this at dusk (probably shouldn't have been, but I was trying to rush it before my 4 year old starting screaming the house down).
But the thicker ones didn't blink an eye on the man-handling.

I have not noticed any deterioration or rotting of the roots in them .... yet. But I try to keep my stock on the healthy and bushy side of things to prevent that.
When you say they don't bark up well, I am hoping its just a matter of time, but so far the equivalent thickness compared to a cunninghamiana or glauca is definitely more smooth.

[Rory]

So all 11 of them are now growing with gusto. They seem to grow a bit faster than torulosa and littoralis.