Australian pine
Origin: Australia, south Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia
Introduction to Florida: Casuarina equisetifolia: 1887 (ornamental) | Casuarina glauca: 1890 (ornamental, agriculture) | Casuarina cunninghamiana: pre-1924 (ornamental, agriculture)
NW, NE, C, SW, SE
Text from Invasive and Non-native Plants You Should Know – Recognition Cards 3
Evergreen tree to 46 m (150 ft) tall, single-trunked; reddish brown to gray bark, rough, brittle, peeling.
Tiny scales, whorled around long, grayish-green branchlets (resemble pine needles), scales 1-3 mm (0.11 in) long, 6-8 per whorl.
Unisexual, inconspicuous, female contained in cylindrical to almost round cone-like clusters, to 2 cm (<1 in) long; male in small terminal spikes, 1.3 cm (0.5 in) wide.
Tiny, 1-seeded, winged nutlet contained in the cone.
Invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives. FLEPPC Category I.
*Additional Casuarina species are listed on FLEPPC’s Category II list of invasive exotics: C. glauca and C. cunninghamiana