The black she-oak, or Allocasaurina littoralis, is one of those slightly odd plants that you find in Australia-even if it is only the common name that is odd! This particular species of she-oak is a dioecious (has seperate male and female trees) tree that can reach up to fifteen metres tall. The native habitat is open forest or woodland, along with scrubby heath and dry scrub. The black she-oak often appears in pure stands where the deep shade combined with the dense carpet of leaf litter that this tree produces inhibits ground cover development. The name she-oak is a strange one, I’ll admit, and I’m not completely sure where it comes from other than potentially from early European settlement. An aboriginal name for this tree from the Camden area is ‘dahl-wah’. The binomial name, Allocasaurina littoralis, has the following meanings:

• Allocasaurina-comes from two words. The first is the Greek word ‘allos’ which means other, as in different to Casuarina, which is another genus of she’s-oaks. The second part of the genus name is ‘Casaurina’ which is a Latin word that itself comes from the Malay word ‘kesuari’ that means ‘Cassowary tree’ due to its resemblance to cassowary feathers.
• Littoralis-a Latin word that means ‘of the sea’, which isn’t appropriate for this tree, but the naming conventions don’t always make sense!

The bark of the black she-oak is fissured and dark grey-brown in colour. The branchlets are thin, up to one millimetre in diameter. The tree has thin needles that sigh in the wind. The leaves appear as six to eight ‘leaf teeth’ around the branchlets.

Being a dioecious tree with seperate male and female trees, there needs to be a male and female tree close by to be able to produce seed. The male trees have red flowers that are rather showy and appear in spring. Unfortunately, I currently don’t have a photo of these flowers. The female cones are cylindrical in shape, being between fifteen and twenty millimetres in diameter and up to 23mm long. The top of the cone is flattened.

As you may have gathered, the black she-oak is an Australian native tree. Its native range extends from Tasmania in the south to the far north of Queensland. This is a distance of roughly 3587 kilometres from Cairns in Queensland (not even as far north as you can go) to Hobart inn Tasmania. The black she-oak is clearly an adaptable plant to have around.

While I have never seen this tree in ‘cultivation’ in gardens or parks, the black she-oak has an ability to be ‘useful’ for people in certain situations. The black she-oak is drought resistant and can tolerate temperatures down to minus five degrees celsius. Provided the soil isn’t waterlogged, a range pf soils are tolerated by this species. The root system is really extensive. This is a good thing as it helps to control erosion, BUT don’t plant close to buildings or underground infrastructure, as this useful root system turns into an irritation, if not an expensive mistake! Choose planting position wisely.

The black she-oak is also a useful tree. The bark can be used in the tanning process. The wood is hard, durable and heavy, so is useful in wood turning, as tool handles, furniture and within farm buildings, The wood is apparently really good for making charcoal.

There is the age-old question of whether I would have this tree in my garden, or not? This is one of the few plants that would be a hard one to say yes or no to. They look really nice, they are a plant that can be useful and also a plant that can be an utter pain to deal with too! the answer would probably be no for my actual garden, but yes to my ‘other garden’ which is any national park I love spending time in on a given day as these spaces are more ‘home’ than home a lot of the time!