Sunday, November 20, 2005

Unknown fruit...forbidden fruit?

 

Today we met with our daughter and son-in-law on Bribie Island;In the area where we stopped for a picnic, across the park from Koolamara Resort was a tree bearing an unusual red fruit!
I've included a match box for size comparison,and a couple of leaves.
The plant was a lovely bush with leaves similar to a Moreton Bay fig leaf and when leaves were removed from the bush a white sticky milk was exuded.
Even though I had my camera with me I never thought to get a pic of the bush.
I've cut a slice out of a fruit and the white stickiness is evident there also;as well as what seems to be a largeish stone or pit like a peach.
I didn't notice any open blossoms,but there did seem to be some buds similar in shape and size to Mangrove blossoms.

Actually,the fruit ,foliage and sap make me think of guavas,but they don't have the sepals on the base like a guava or pomegranite.

I'll harass the shire botanist/gardener tomorrow, and also the Ag Dept in the hope they can identify it for me Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Linda said...

The old rule I was always given was to never trust anything with white sap - but that was moe a skin problem, than eating. The proper fig has white sap.

Maureen said...

--and I'm always dubious about red fruit with white sap like zamia palm fruit which is poisonous to cattle.