The genus name mentions a bird, the cassowary, who lives in the same area of origin, New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. The straight plumage of this ostrich-like bird is very similar to the young branches of this tree, hence its popular name. The specific name equisetifolia is for the similarity of these twigs with the equisetum or horsetail, a very common fern in the Spanish fields.
This tree has a unique feature: its roots are associated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, so it does not need fertilizer of this element. It thus becomes a very suitable tree for fixing land, ideal for reforestation programs. It is also used in some places, USA and Canary, as crop protection against the wind.
But in the Alcázar of Seville they stand out especially because in 2001, experts from the CISC of the Doñana Biological Station located in one of the coast sheoaks from the English Garden of the Alcázar a colony of Nyctalus lasiopterus, the only European carnivore bat that feeds on small birds and insects. The colonies were in one of the coast sheoaks of the English Garden and the Carya that then existed between the gazebo of Charles V and grotesque gallery. The noctule leaves the shelters at dusk and flies out of the Alcázar to hunt, so this species uses the site of the gardens to locate their shelters but not for food.