2 Australian Pines Traditional Cache

2 of the 3 Australian Pines that grow in FL are here. GZ is with the "river oak", Casuarina Glauca. It's hard for me to differentiate the species, but I think the other one here is Casuarina Equisetifolia. The tiny Bay Height's park is across from the hardware store on Rt 776. Easiest from the N. BYOP.

 2 Australian Pines

Often called Australian pines, casuarina trees made their debut in the United States in the early 1800s. Though useful as firewood and windbreaks, casuarina trees have become a nuisance in some areas, including Florida. They are found in other states as well, including California and Hawaii. They grow quickly, up to 10 feet in their first year.

The Casuarina equisetifolia variety grows almost exclusively on beaches. Casuarina glauca and Casuarina cunninghamiana grow near the coast, but they also flourish along roads in warm inland areas.

Casuarina trees were originally introduced to the U.S. in Florida as a coastal windbreak. In coastal areas, it also serves as erosion control. Several areas of California still use the trees for this purpose. The trees provide dense foliage, so some people plant them in their yards as shade trees. If pruned from the beginning and consistently during its life, a casuarina tree can be shaped into an attractive hedge or topiary. The dense wood makes excellent firewood, fence posts and structure framing.

Casuarina trees can take over an area without consistent maintenance. They often displace native vegetation and change the ecology of their area, making it difficult for native plants to grow; when branches fall, they produce chemicals when they decompose that seep into the soil and make it inhospitable to other plants. Also, the large amount of shade created by casuarina trees can block the sun, keeping native plants from growing. This creates an additional problem of destroying the natural habitats of several animals, including sea turtles and several coastal birds that nest in empty dunes or native grasses.

Three species of Casuarina occur in Florida: C. cunninghamiana, C. equisetifolia, and C. glauca (Woodall and Geary, 1985). They are easily recognized by their distinctive needle-like foliage leading to the common misnomer, "Australian Pine." The term "needle," while botanically incorrect, is convenient and is used in this document. These "needles" are actually formed from overlapping whorls of leaves fused into a cylinder that surrounds true stem tissue. Each leaf terminates with a pointed, tooth-like structure giving the "needle" the appearance of nodes with whorls of very small leaves (teeth) at each node. Thus, the needle is termed "jointed" and the length of the region between nodes is useful in identifying each species. These "nodes" are easily seen with the naked eye. The needles in cross-section are circular with ridges and furrows. The features of the cross-section are diagnostic. Some needles undergo secondary growth and essentially become stems, while others do not and they eventually abscise. The latter needles are termed “branchlets."

Casuarina cunninghamiana

C. cunninghamiana flowers basically in the same manner as the other species, except it is dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants; see also Boland et al., 1996). Leaf-teeth typically number 7 to 10, are sharply pointed, and, because the tips are usually grayish-brown, the whorl of teeth has a brown ring about halfway between the base of the teeth and their tips. The cones of the few female trees found in Florida are smaller in size and fewer in number than those generally observed on C. equisetifolia trees .

The trees are fast-growing and tall, reaching heights of 100 feet or more at maturity, but they are the smallest and least vigorous among the three species in Florida according to Woodall and Geary (1985). The branches and needles are droopy, giving the tree a soft appearance. The bark on mature trees is fissured, somewhat blocky, and useful in species identification. A slight tendency to form root suckers has been reported for plants growing elsewhere, but they are apparently uncommon in Florida.

Casuarina equisetifolia

C. equisetifolia L. is predominantly a monoecious (male and female flowers occur on the same plant) species. Studies of seedling populations of this species have shown that dioecious plants can appear as well as non-flowering plants (Yashoda et al., 2004). Female flowers are borne along the stems and male flowers at the ends of needles.

The plants may flower several times in the warmer months of the year beginning in the spring. Pollination is by wind. Cones are relatively abundant, slightly longer than they are wide, and may be slightly pubescent or hairy. When they open, very small, single-winged seeds are ejected. Leaf-teeth number 6 to 8, but mostly 7. The teeth lack the brown band present in the other two species. They are usually whitish in color and occasionally have a brown tip. The furrows formed between adjacent leaves along the stem between nodes are usually filled with white hairs.

Plants of this species do not produce root suckers, and they coppice (produce new shoots from tree stumps) weakly. Mature trees have an open, irregular crown . Their bark is thin and lacks well defined fissures. When bark sections weather and are shed from growth, the color underneath can range from orange to bright red. Individual trees may reach mature heights of 100 feet or taller. Reports vary on when trees may begin flowering and range from 1 to 5 years. Tree growth rates are reportedly from 3 (uncultivated) to 10 feet (cultivated)/year.

Casuarina glauca 

C. glauca is dioecious. The leaf-teeth number is the largest of the three species and ranges from 10-14. Also distinctive is the brown band that occurs at the base of the teeth where they join together. A question remains as to whether this species forms cones in Florida.

The trees are moderately tall, perhaps 60 feet at maturity, and rarely occur in the environment as individual trees because they easily spread by root suckers, and their stumps coppice readily . The trees have a tendency to branch strongly in the upper canopy, leading to a crown profile that is largely upright, smooth, and relatively narrow. The tree is actually quite attractive because of its dark green foliage contrasted with a gray bark and a generally dense canopy. Tree appearance is similar to C. cunninghamiana in that the branches and branchlets are droopy, and give the tree a soft look, but the branches and needles are visibly longer in C. glauca. Stands consisting of mature trees and root suckers give the appearance of a small individual plant community.

There are many other interesting plants in this little boat put-in park. (Formerly a mobile home park). All the pictures on this page are from there.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "micro" pill bottle. This one you have to Squeeze at the arrows on the lid, while turning to open. Please make sure it clicks shut, when you're done! Also be careful with the rubber band as it's needed to facilitate getting the log out of the bottle. BYOP. Recamo as found or better.