Gymnostoma australianum, also named the Daintree pine or oak, is a species of small trees which are (endemic) to a restricted area of the Daintree tropical rainforests region, of the larger region of the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Queensland, Australia. They constitute part of the plant family Casuarinaceae, often named she-oaks, members of which are characterised by drooping equisetoid (meaning "to look like Equisetum") evergreen foliage, and separate male and female flowers (unisexual). Superficially they look like well known scale-leaved gymnosperm trees species, such as Cupressus in the northern hemisphere and Callitris in the southern hemisphere.
Within their restricted distribution in the Daintree rainforests region, they usually grow in the habitats of open, sunny, long-term rainforest gaps, ranging, from the lowlands to the uplands, in regularly flooded river bank (riparian) situations through to rocky or exposed, wet, cloudy, mountain top situations, including recorded collections from 0 to 1,350 m (0 to 4,429 ft) altitude.
Their roots have nitrogen-fixing nodules. They grow into small trees of 4-7 m (13-23 ft) tall. Mature trees bear cone-structure fruits 7-15 mm (0.3-0.6 in) long X 8-15 mm (0.3-0.6 in) wide. When ripe each cone's numerous valves open to release the dark-coloured winged seeds 7-8 mm long.
They have obtained the Queensland government's official conservation status of "vulnerable" species.
Video Gymnostoma australianum
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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