Allocasuarina huegeliana, commonly known as rock sheoak or sighing sheoak, is a tree in the family Casuarinaceae. Endemic to Western Australia, it occurs throughout the Wheatbelt. It is now especially common on road verges, where it sometimes forms thickets.
Rock sheoak grows to a height of between six and nine metres. It has sparse foliage that forms a rounded outline. Sometimes it branches at ground level, but usually has a bole of a few metres. As with other Allocasuarina species, the foliage consists of slender green branchlets informally referred to as "needles" but more correctly termed cladodes. These are segmented, and the true leaves are reduced to tiny teeth encircling each joint. Male trees have small brown flower spikes at the end of branchlets. Female trees bear small flowers on short branchlets of their own. Fertilised flowers develop egg-shaped cones about 1½ to 3 centimetres wide.
Rock Sheoak was first collected on Mount Brown near York in 1840 by Ludwig Preiss. The specific name huegeliana honours the Austrian naturalist Baron Carl von Huegel. The common name "rock sheoak" refers to its habitat, which often contains granite rocks. The alternative common name "sighing sheoak" alludes to the sound of the wind in the foliage.
It is also used as host species in Sandalwood plantations [1]
Notes
- ^ Sandalwood Guide for Farmers Forest Products Commission April 2007'
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