DROOPING SHE-OAK

(Allocasuarina verticillata)

(Photos: C. Schultz, habit, cones, foliage; Cape Jervis)

These trees can grow 4-10m tall, on a variety of soils including the limestone coastal soils around Cape Jervis. The branches droop with needle-like foliage, and no true leaves…sounds great in the wind! The seeds from its cones are the favorite food of the Glossy Black Cockatoo; you’ll see the ‘chewings’ from these under the trees on Kangaroo Island. You won’t see the cockatoos at Cape Jervis yet; they haven’t been seen on the mainland for years. However, extensive she-oak plantings started around the Cape with Greening Australia about 17 years ago, as part of the Glossy Black Cockatoo Recovery Program. Several other groups have contributed, including COOTs, Cape Jervis & Delamere Progress Association and CJCCG. More drooping she-oaks will be going in, winter of 2016! Come along then, plant some, and be part of the recovery program.