Florida LandscapeFlorida Landscape
Casuarina: A Beauty and a Beast
We’ve got a problem in Southwest Florida — and there are problems in the Caribbean, South Pacific and elsewhere — with a tree properly known as the casuarina (pronounced caz-u-ar-ina). You probably know it as “Australian pine” and that’s half correct. It is from Australia, but it is not a pine. In Praise of Weeds
“Freedom, it would seem, can lie in the smallest area.”
– Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
They arrive from far-flung ancestors, some of the few to settle upon suitable land and survive drought, famine, toxins and mowing. They are invaders of a well-groomed landscape, breaking through to reveal their true beauty in a desperate attempt to flower and reproduce before being chopped up once again.
