About Allocasuarina paludosa (Sieber ex Spreng.) L.A.S.Johnson
Allocasuarina paludosa is a spreading shrub that can be either monoecious or dioecious, and it typically grows to between 0.3 and 4 metres (1 foot 0 inch to 13 feet 1 inch) tall. Its branchlets are more or less erect, growing up to 200 millimetres (7.9 inches) long. The leaves of this species are reduced to erect or spreading scale-like teeth, each between 0.5 and 0.9 millimetres (0.020 to 0.035 inches) long. These scale teeth are arranged in whorls of six to eight around the branchlets. The sections of branchlet between the leaf whorls measure 5 to 14 millimetres (0.20 to 0.55 inches) long and 0.7 to 1 millimetre (0.028 to 0.039 inches) wide. Male flowers are arranged in spikes 10 to 25 millimetres (0.39 to 0.98 inches) long, with 7 to 9 whorls per centimetre (per 0.39 inches), and anthers 0.7 to 1.1 millimetres (0.028 to 0.043 inches) long. Female cones are either sessile or borne on a peduncle up to 2 millimetres (0.079 inches) long. When mature, the cones are cylindrical to oval, 10 to 18 millimetres (0.39 to 0.71 inches) long and 7 to 13 millimetres (0.28 to 0.51 inches) in diameter. The winged seeds are dark brown to black and 3.5 to 5.0 millimetres (0.14 to 0.20 inches) long. This species grows in heath and on poorly drained soils near swamps at the edge of woodland. It occurs on the coast and nearby tablelands from south of Broken Bay in New South Wales, through southern Victoria to the far south-east of South Australia.
