About Allocasuarina nana (Sieber ex Spreng.) L.A.S.Johnson
Allocasuarina nana is a spreading shrub that is usually dioecious, rarely monoecious, and typically reaches 0.2 to 2 meters (7.9 inches to 6 feet 6.7 inches) in height. Its branchlets are more or less erect, growing up to 80 mm (3.1 inches) long. The true leaves of this species are reduced to small, erect, scale-like teeth 0.5–0.6 mm (0.020–0.024 inches) long, arranged in whorls of four to six around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls measure 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 inches) in length and 0.5–0.8 mm (0.020–0.031 inches) in width. Male flowers form in dense spikes 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 inches) long, with 16 to 20 whorls per centimeter (per 0.39 inches), and anthers that are 0.5–0.6 mm (0.020–0.024 inches) long. Female cones are sessile or borne on a peduncle up to 3 mm (0.12 inches) long. When mature, the cones are cylindrical to barrel-shaped, 14–24 mm (0.55–0.94 inches) long and 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 inches) in diameter, and contain winged seeds 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 inches) long. Allocasuarina nana grows in heath over sandstone in exposed locations, found on the coast and tablelands of New South Wales from Cowan and Glen Davis southward to the far northeast of Victoria.
