Monday 2 March 2009

Native Australian tree; Blue Quandong;

Elaecarpus angustifolius;

I went for a walk with my dog Billy and saw on my way back that in my next door neighbour's garden the Quandong was flowering. This is a spectacular tree, huge, this is a young tree 20 years old and the branches are already over 10 m long. Inside, along the branches are these amazing creamy white bell like flowers. Please click the pictures to enlarge.





Birds enjoy the nectar of the flowers. Here a blue faced honeyeater 'Entomyzon cyanotis' and a Rainbow Lorikeet 'Trichoglossus haematodus'its red breast feathers competing with the the odd red leaf, which is a particularity of this tree.




The whole tree is chock-a-block full of flowers.


The ripe blue berries of the Quandong.


Blue Quandong
, species
Elaeocarpus angustifolius (syn. E. grandis), also known as Brush (or Silver) Quandong, Blue Fig and Coolan.[1] This belongs to a different genus and is usually categorised with the others due to the similarity of the seed in the fruit. However unlike the Desert Quandong, this is a sour fruit, having a texture and aftertaste somewhat resembling an olive. The fruit is only ripe for a matter of hours between the sour under-ripe fruit to the mealy, crumbly and tasteless over-ripe condition. Blue Quandongs are eaten whole by cassowaries, Woompoo pigeon and Spectacled flying foxes, which pass the nut undamaged.[2] It is commonly thought that the seeds may be unable to germinate unless they pass through the animal's intestines. Wikipedia

There is another Quandong tree, Santalum acuminatum, desert or sweet quandong, or native peach. The species is one widely used by early Australians. This tree produces a valuable bushfood.
Thank you for your visit and have a nice day.

18 comments:

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

For a while, I was wondering why you were talking about a Chinese tree. Quandong is the place in Cantonese where my ancestors come from. Now they call it Kwang Chow.

I am intriqued with your finger shaped lime. Never seen one before. Once, I was staying in a flat with a finger shaped passion fruit.

Love your photos.

Unknown said...

Now that's interesting! Very unique. You mentioned if I would like a Lycoris aurea, can't find it again to have a look see. Can you help me out?

Unknown said...

Oh, the gold/yellow spider lily? Heck yeah I'd love some. Is there anything seeds or plants I have that you would like? rusdar@hotmail.com

DeniseinVA said...

I enjoyed learning about this wonderful tree. Your photos were wonderful. Thank you for such a great post.

Sunita Mohan said...

Wow! What a beautiful tree! And great information, Trudi, thank you. For a minute I thought that the red leaves were more birds :) Red leaves, blue berries, white flowers!... it really is an extremely colourful tree isnt it?

Barbarapc said...

I love to visit your site, it's like visiting another splendid planet - completely magical.

Anonymous said...

amazing, simply amazing
K

Anonymous said...

What a great tree and the flowers are just beautiful..
Wikipedia tells me
"The fruit of this species is round and blue, between 20 and 30 mm across, and has a seed with deep convolutions in its shell. These are eaten whole by cassowaries, Woompoo pigeon and Spectacled flying foxes, which pass the nut undamaged."
You have flying foxes? Found some pictures, very interesting indeed...
Gisela

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. The colour of the berries is as amazing as the huge spray of flowers!
The birds are quite over shadowed (lol)

Janie said...

You have such beautiful exotic plants and birds in your part of the world. I love seeing them and learning about them.

Unknown said...

I love reading about Australian plants and this one is truly amazing. So unique!

vincibene said...

Meine kärglichen botanischen Kenntnisse werden durch Deinen Blog beträchtlich erweitert!

Schau mal bei mir vorbei, da liegt noch ein Geschenk für Dich!

LG
Chris

Laura in Paris said...

Oh, how we envy your summer, flowers, and blue sky ... it's pretty cold here in London, where I am spending a few days!

Anonymous said...

What an interesting plant. Please consider submitting this post to Berry Go Round - a blog carnival about plants. I'm sure its readers would be intrigued.

HappyMouffetard said...

A wonderful tree. The berries are amazing.

Barbara said...

Der Name des Baumes tönt sehr melodisch, stelle mir dabei einen sanften Gongschlag vor ;-) !! Aber die weissen dichten Blütenbüschel erinnern mich irgendwie an den "Flumer" meiner Mutter :-) !! Wunderschön sind die Blüten!
Es liebs Grüessli,
Barbara

Barbee' said...

What a gorgeous tree in bloom! All the time I was looking at your photos, I was thinking: the plants and birds are so exotic looking.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for all the kind and interesting comments.