Casuarina Species, River She-Oak

This is one of nine plant species prohibited by the county where I garden in West Palm Beach, FL, as it's invasive of natural areas. It i...Read Mores widely naturalized in central and southern Florida.

This is also a Florida state prohibited plant.

The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council has listed this as a Category ll invasive species.

This is a flowering plant and not a conifer.

Propagation
Seeds are the preferred method of propagation because they are abundant and easy to handle, but germination percentage...Read Mores can vary from 30 to 70% depending on such factors as species, season of harvest and the collection site within the tree canopy (El-Lakany, 1996; El-Lakany et al., 1989; Olsen et al., undated). Poor germination may result from high proportions of shriveled, empty, and insect-damaged seeds that can be separated from "good" seeds by a flotation technique that can improve the germination percentage (Sivakumar et al., 2007). Seeds germinate in 2 to 3 weeks. Some care is required to prevent diseases caused by overwatering and damage from predators like ants. The dioecious Casuarina species tend to produce seedling populations with 1:1 ratios of male to female plants, but the ratio may vary and individual plants may be sexually unstable (Boland et al., 1996; Yasodha et al., 2004).

Potentially, another invasive casuarina that will smother out native species.

Care should be taken to prevent the spread o...Read Moref these trees in South Florida.

This is a pioneer species in the establishment of new plantation in arid areas. It is often used as a wind break. I'm surprised that it's...Read More common name is River She Oak when it can grow in the desert in very difficult conditions!
Personally, I am not very fond of these trees from an aesthetic point of view, but environmentally, they seem to have their uses.
I believe that the fallen needles have to be gathered and removed if one wishes the trees to regenerate naturally, although I don't have direct experience to validate this point of view..