Coast she-oak (Casuarina equisetifolia)

Coast she-oak is Casuarina equisetifolia, the savukku of Tamil Nadu’s sandy coast — a fast tree that looks like a pine and is nothing of the kind. Farmers grow it for poles, pulpwood and firewood, and coastal villages plant it as a windbreak against salt wind. It is a working tree, not a medicine.

Botanical name: Casuarina equisetifolia L.
Family: Casuarinaceae
Tamil: Savukku
Hindi: Jangli jhau
Parts used: Timber, Poles, Fuelwood
Habit: Needle-twig coast tree; not a pine
Last updated: 2026-10-25

How to recognise Coast she-oak

Linnaeus named it, and the epithet means “horsetail-like”: the green, drooping, jointed twigs are what you see from a distance. Each joint carries a tiny whorl of scale-leaves. The twigs do the photosynthesis that leaves would do on another tree.

Pull a twig apart and it snaps cleanly at the joints, like a horsetail. A pine needle does not. The fruit is a small woody cone about the size of a marble, made of many tiny winged seeds; it is a fruit, not a pine cone, and the family is Casuarinaceae, not a conifer at all.

In Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra the tree is a familiar crop on sandy farms: rows of straight grey trunks harvested every few years for scaffolding poles and paper mills. Older trees develop fissured grey bark and a narrow, airy crown that hums in the wind.

Traditional use of Coast she-oak

Coastal farming

Savukku became a cash tree on Tamil coastal sands because it grows quickly on poor soil and sells as poles and fuel. Its hard, heavy wood is the reason for the old English trade name beefwood.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra coastal planting

Shelterbelts

Rows of casuarina were planted along the Coromandel coast as wind and sand breaks, and planting increased after the 2004 tsunami.

Coastal shelterbelt programmes

Modern notes on Coast she-oak

Its roots host Frankia, a soil bacterium that fixes nitrogen. That is why it grows on bare sand where little else will, and why foresters use it to stabilise dunes.

Shelterbelt studies are mixed: a belt slows wind and blown sand, but a dense monoculture can also crowd out native dune plants and change how a beach erodes.

Coast she-oak safety

Fallen twigs build a dry, flammable litter layer under plantations. Keep fires well away from stands in the dry season.

Ecology and sourcing

Outside its native range it has naturalised and become invasive on some beaches, notably Florida, where it displaces native dune vegetation and turtle nesting sand.

In India it is a planted crop. Its value is real on degraded sand, but it should not replace native coastal vegetation such as screwpine, spinifex and mangroves where those still grow.

Related plants

Questions about Coast she-oak

Is Coast she-oak a pine?

No. The jointed green twigs only look like needles, and the cone is a woody fruit of a flowering plant.

What is the Tamil name of Casuarina equisetifolia?

Savukku.

Is Coast she-oak a mangrove?

No. It grows on dry sand above the tide line, not in tidal mud.

Sources

Educational page about a plant. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not an offer to sell. Traditional use is historical. If you need care, ask a licensed clinician. Questions: hello@meevamed.com.