Casuarina equisetifolia

beach sheoak

Family: Casuarinaceae · Type: Dicot (Tree)

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

beach sheoak is a naturalized tree found in coastal regions of southern California in sandy beach and dune habitats near the ocean. Flowering from September to March, this tree produces inconspicuous reddish flowers in small terminal clusters. Growing to heights of 15 to 25 meters with spreading, drooping branches, it forms a distinctive open-crowned tree with green to gray-green segmented branchlets resembling horsetail rushes. Its leaves are reduced to tiny teeth or scales arranged in whorls around slender green photosynthetic branchlets that look like needle-like stems. The fruit is a small woody cone containing winged seeds that aid in wind dispersal.

Bioregions: ScV, SnFrB, SCoR, SCo, D

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.