Australian Pine Traditional Cache

Australian Pine is not naitve to the U.S. It was introduced a century ago and has become invasive in Florida. Please BYOP and check the cache info at the bottom of the page.

Australian Pine

Casuarina is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, southeast Asia, and islands  of the western Pacific Ocean.

They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to 35 m tall.

 The foliage consists of slender, much-branched green to grey-green twigs bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 5–20. The apetalous flowers are produced in small catkin-like infloescences. Most species are dioecious, but a few are monoecious.

The fruit is a woody, oval structure superficially resembling a conifer cone, made up of numerous carpels, each containing a single seed with a small wing. The generic name is derived from the Malay word for the cassowary, kasuari, alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage.

C. cunninghamiana, C. glauca and C. equestrifolia has become naturalized in several countries, including the southern United States; in the United States it was introduced in the early 1900s, and is now considered an invasive species. The species has nearly quadrupled in southern Florida between 1993 and 2005, where it is known as Australian pine.

Casuarina equisetifolia or Australian pine tree is a she-oak species of the genus Casuarina. The species has been introduced to the Southern United States. It is an invasive species in Florida and South Africa.

The specific name equisetifolia is derived from the Latin equisetum, meaning "horse hair" (referring to the resemblance of the drooping branchlets to horse tail). Common names include coast sheoak (coast she oak, coastal she-oak), beach casuarina, beach oak, beach sheoak (beach she-oak), whistling tree, horsetail she oak, horsetail beefwood, horsetail tree, Australian pine, ironwood, whistling pine, Filao tree, and agoho.

Casuarina equisetifolia, showing red female flowers and mature cones

Casuarina equisetifolia is an evergreen tree growing to 6–35 m (20–115 ft) tall. The foliage consists of slender, much-branched green to grey-green twigs 0.5–1 mm (0.020–0.039 in) diameter, bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 6–8.

The flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences; the male flowers in simple spikes 0.7–4 cm (0.28–1.57 in) long, the female flowers on short peduncles. Unlike most other species of Casuarina (which are dioecious) it is monoecious, with male and female flowers produced on the same tree. The fruit is an oval woody structure 10–24 mm (0.39–0.94 in) long and 9–13 mm (0.35–0.51 in) in diameter, superficially resembling a conifer cone made up of numerous carpels each containing a single seed with a small wing 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long.

Like some other species of the Genus Casuarina, Casuarina equisetifolia is an actinarhizal plant able to fix atmospheric nitrogen.

Casuarina is widely used as a bonsai subject, particularly in South-east Asia and parts of the Caribbean. Indonesian specimens and those cultivated in Taiwan are regarded among the best in the bonsai world. The wood of this tree is used for shingles, fencing, and is said to make excellent hot-burning firewood.

Among the islands of Hawaii, Casuarina are also grown for erosion prevention, and in general as wind breaking elements.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "micro", child safe pill bottle. Yes, you have to push hard, both to open and close. Please make sure it's closed tightly when you're done and the camo is replaced. It holds a rolled log with a rubber band in a tiny zip lock bag that also needs to be checked to be closed tightly. BYOP.