Sex discrimination of Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) for selective revegetation

Abstract

Allocasuarina luehmannii (Buloke) is a slow-growing dioecious species occurring primarily in south-eastern Australia. Larger seed-bearing female trees, at least 100 yrs old, are an essential food source for the threatened Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne (Karak). Sex-discrimination in Buloke was investigated utilising Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) techniques. While described as a dioecious species, 18% of the plants sampled were monoecious suggesting that this is in fact a subdioecious species. Stem material from 55 paddock trees was collected to identify genetic differences between female, male and monoecious plants. An initial screening o..