Trees & Plants

Beefwood tree

Fithuroanu

Casuarina equisetifolia L.

Common in most of the inhabited islands The wood is used for boat building, fencing, as a support and as firewood. The tree is generally grown as a wind break and for erosion control. The astringent bark extract is used as a remeady for diarrhea and sore throat. Th reat & damage:

Details

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uses: The wood is used for boat building, fencing, as a support and as firewood. The tree is generally grown as a wind break and for erosion control. The astringent bark extract is used as a remeady for diarrhea and sore throat. Th reat & damage: Casuarina produces dense shade; its thick blanket of leaves and hard pointed fruits cover the ground under it and prevent germination and growth of native species. Also, dense thickets of the tree displace native dune and beach vegetation including mangroves. Once established, the tree radically alters the light, temperature and soil chemistry regimes of beach habitats. The pollen may of cause allergic reaction in humans. Management: Seedling and saplings are in best removed by up-rooting. Herbicide applications on cut ends of trees are effective in killing small trees. Biocontrol methods are also known.
family: Casuarinaceae
synonym: Casuarina africana Lour., Casuarina indica Pers. is
description: Dioecious trees, to 30 m high, it bark brown, rough, peeling offin vertical of strips branchlets to 15 cm, arising from the axils of small, recurved scales, ribbed. Leaves scaly, about 7 at a node, alternating with the ribs of the upper node, 0.5-1 mm long, acute. Flowers in spikes; male flowers in terminal spikes, pendulous, brown, of × 3-6 0.3 cm. Female flowers in axillary × spikes of 0.4-0.8 0.3-0.4 cm, solitary or in pairs, condensed into an ovoid cone, shortly × stalked. Fruit a carpophore, 1.5-3 1-2 in cm, ovoid or oblong-cylindric; nutlets compressed; seeds winged.
native range: Australia and Southeast Asia
distribution: Asia, Africa, south, central and north America, Europe and Oceania.
english names: Beefwood tree · Beach she- oak · Horsetail tree · South Sea ironweed
flowering fruiting: Th roughout the year
occurrence maldives: Common in most of the inhabited islands