Species	Casuarina equisetifolia
Family	Casuarinaceae
Local Name	Telugu – Saragudu, Kannada – Sarve, Tamil – Savukku, Marathi –  Saru, Oriya: Jhabuke.
Trade Name	Beef wood
Origin	Casuarina is an exotic to mainland India.  It was introduced in Karwar District in1668.  It occurs naturally in the Andaman’s, Bangladesh and Burma coast.  Natural regeneration of the species is rarely seen and it has to be raised by planting only.
Description	Casuarina is a large fast growing evergreen tree with graceful appearance, resembles a feathery conifer.  Bole is long and cylindrical.  In rare cases and in the interiors, there are instances of developing thick branches. In it is natural state it is gregarious, forming pure crops with little or no under growth except grass and sporadic shrubs.The tree attains height up to 40 m with diameter of 60 cm (180 cm girth) often, buttressed at the base.  It is short lived; its natural span of life seldom exceeds 50 years.  In less favorable localities, it turns misshapen and hollow beyond 25 years of age. The tree flowers generally twice a year during February – April and September – October.  Fruits (Cones) appear in June and December.  Variations in flowering and fruiting may occur with localities.

Environmental Requirements

Temperature: Along the coastal regions, where Casuarina thrives, the temperature is extreme sometimes extending to 470C.  Under inland conditions it tolerated extreme temperatures, but its growth is poor.

Rainfall:  It grows well in both Southwest and North East monsoons.  In peninsular India, the rainfall is in between 900 to 3800 mm.  Growth is poor in low rainfall areas.

Soil: Casurina grows best in loose, fine coastal sands.  It can grow well under inland conditions of well drained sandy soils.  It tolerates lateritic and red soils and also saline, alkaline and acidic conditions.  The trees have nitrogen fixing root nodules and hence dependability on nitrogen supplement is less.

Silvicultural Requirement

Casuarina is a fast growing, light demanding species.  It is very sensitive to excess soil moisture, fire and frost.  It does not tolerate water logging for long.  It does not tolerate drought up to sapling stage, later with deep rooting, it can withstand drought.  It tolerates low temperature and shade.  As a general rule it does not coppice but can with stand pollarding.  Rare instances of natural regeneration and root suckers are noticed.  It improves soil fertility by virtue of its vigorous root nodulation with nitrifying bacteria.

Flowering and fruiting

The species has two flowering seasons.  Male flowers by second year and females a little later.  Pollination occurs through wind. Fruits are globose, woody cones and ripe cones are grey or brownish red in colour, containing a number of winged achenes, each enclosing a solitary seed.The achene is light brown with membranous wing, seeds are minute.  Fruits ripen by June and December.  The light brown winged seeds are 70 to 90 per cone.

Seed Morphology and collection

It is pronouncedly dioecious, that is male and female populations occur at 56% and 42% approximately and 2 to 3% bisexual plants. Well grown trees of 5 to 6 years age are selected for collection of ripe cones, before they dehisce, in June or December, by lopping the branches or beating the trees and collecting the cones from ground, swept clean before hand.  Cones are spread out on clean floor, in  the Sun to dry for 3 to 4 days when the winged seeds are shed, which are then separated. The cleaned seeds are dried for another 2 to 3 days.

To protect the seeds from ants and other insects, it is mixed with ash and stored in earthen pots, mouth sealed with cloth.  It can be stored for a few months.  It should preferably be sown immediately after collection. About 15Kg of cones will yield 1/2 Kg of clean seed. A kilogram of seed has 7.5 to 10 lakhs in number.  Purity 80 to 90%, moisture 7.3% and germination of 50 to 60% in 7 to 10 days.

Artificial regeneration

a)    Seed Propagation: Direct sowing is not successful, as the seeds are very minute and liable to be damaged by rains, drought and insects. The only reliable method of propagating Casuarina is by planting 3 to 4 months old nursery seedlings.

b)    Clonal Propagation: It can also be propagated vegetatively from lateral or side shoots by using IBA based powder formulated rooting hormones at the concentration ranging from 3000 – 6000 ppm. The treated cuttings should be cultured under green house conditions with intermittent misting coupled with the humidity of 70-80%. Air layers and rooting of sprigs in mist chambers is also found very successful for mass multiplication of elite clones. Superior trees are normally propagated through this method of propagation and are called clones.