Casuarina Flower

[Jan]

I’ve seen the cones on casuarinas in various stages before but this is the first time I’ve seen a wild casuarina "flowering". Is it a true "flower" on Casuarina, or is it called something else?

Thought you might like a look,

Jan

2010-01-30_CasuarinaFlowerNet.jpg

[Greth]

My reaction is that its a something else, could it be a fungal growth or something with a fruiting body? I would refer this one to the Botanic Gardens or something, just looks weird. Can you collect it?
To the best of my knowledge, Casurinas only have the female cones and the male pollen flowers, never seen anything with colour before.

[Bretts]

Tahts a flower by the looks of it. They are not bad flowers by the looks of it. I wonder if they can be made to flower with Bonsai trimming?

Casuarina_junghuhniana_cone_flwr.jpg

[Greth]

ok Bretts, never seen a Casurina with coloured flowers before, lol, my bad

[Jan]

It is one of several on the tree in various stages of opening. One has even made it to the stage of starting to transform into the beginings of a cone, others are mere buds, others just opening. It is definatly a fruiting body Greth.

I agree Bretts, Fabulous color! Don't know if trimming would encourage flowers but I think their opening is a response to a fall of rain recently, though the flower buds could have been set up by the snow fall moisture late last year. I realise it can take quite a while for plants from trigger episode to flowering.

Jan

[shibui]

Casuarinas - probably actually Allocasuarina now - seem to have male trees and separate female ones (thats dioceous I think). Even though the flowers are tiny the male trees often take on a rusty color when in full flower.

[Greth]

Yeah, I think I have seen the female ones in flower, but on the local species they are tiny and white, very inconspicuous, didn't expect to see red ones of any size, lol.

[MelaQuin]

I've never seen a casurina flower but having recently seen a small leaf jade covered in small pink flowers... anything is possible. Contact Cumberland State Forest Native Nursery [Castle Hill, Sydney] or the Royal Botanic Garden in any capital city and see what the expert say. But definitely looks nice!!

[Jan]

20210627_120224.jpg

Always a joy to see.

[Rory]

Always a joy to see.

When the tree is covered in the blood red flowers, its beautiful to see.

I have only seen the flowers like this on nana, defungens and another I cannot recall. They are lovely.

[Jan]

Thanks for the links to the Cas info, Rory. Very interesting as I'm trying to grow a few.

The flower above is on a wild cas, littoralis, I think (they are the local cas) and the first flower in the thread was also on a wild Littoralis in the Snowys.

[Rory]

casy.jpg

Here is a photo I took today of Allocasuarina nana with its beautiful display of a multitude of small flowers.

Combined with the short emerald needles, its the most beautiful of all the Casys for Bonsai in my opinion.
Ive had them quite a few years now, and there is still no sign of rough bark, just smooth all the way down.
I'm down to my last 3, as I trunk-chopped them way too early in their initial development. You should always leave at least 2 branches on them after a cut-back, and wait till they are about 3 years old before you trunk chop.
They don't like wet feet, as it will rot them and eventually kill them.
Other than that, they are exceptionally beautiful material.

They are far superior than Cunninghamania or Gluaca or verticillata or any other non-fissured bark casys I've tried.....Mainly because of the short internodes and propensity to ramify with little external effort required.

Once you have mastered the growing conditions, the only annoyance is that the needles grow very upright, so you don't have that lovely weep that torulosa has, which most Casuarina are admired for in the wild. I haven't really tried any serious attempts at keeping branches below the horizontal, so I'll know in maybe 5 years or so. At the moment I'm still concentrating on the lower structures and maintaining good health.

But I highly recommend the best 2 casys now as Allocasuarina nana, and Allocasuarina torulosa.

Allocasuarina defungens is proving to be a delightful alternative to torulosa, but I haven't tried any major trunk-chopping yet. It develops intricate fissured bark early on. It also develops a profusion of tiny pine cones that is a pleasure to see.

[matlea]

Hi Rory

I have one growing from seed, not very old... only about 5yrs.
Bark is smooth, not sure this will change significantly with age, but the one I have does have a growth habit of longish branches growing below horizontal.
Mine hasn’t flowered like yours ... maybe in time.