n. Any of various trees or shrubs of the genus Casuarina native to Australia, Southeast Asia, and neighboring islands, having jointed needlelike branchlets, scalelike whorled leaves, and small fruits grouped in woody conelike structures. Also called Australian pine. [New Latin Casuarīna, genus name, coined by German botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627-1702) after Dutch Kasuarisboom, casuarina (literally, “cassowary tree,” from the resemblance of its drooping twigs to the feathers of the cassowary), from kasuaris, cassowary, from New Latin casuarius, from Malay kasuari; see CASSOWARY.] |
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