DCP_1908 10.46Native Cherry - Exocarpus sp.
This small tree which looks similar at first glance to a Casuarina is a parasite when young on the roots of other trees.
Text below adapted from: http://www.backyardorganicgardening.com/native/cherry.html
Native Cherry, Exocarpus cupressiformis or otherwise called Cherry Ballart is an attractive small tree with fine, pendulous branches with insignificant leaves and tiny white flowers. It is semi parasitic on the roots of nearby plants, but as it matures, it relies more on photosynthesis to provide its food. Larger specimens are frequently seen as sub canopy trees in drier, rocky sites of eucalyptus woodlands. Their elegant form and drooping yellow green foliage, distinguishes them from the surrounding sclerophyllous vegetation.
Why the name "native cherry"?
The fleshy, red fruit, consists of a swollen fleshy red stalk (pedicel) on which the real seed bearing fruit (nut-like) grows. It is exactly the same design for the cashew nut tree, with the nut located on the outside of its fleshy fruit.
So why does nature provide these weird variations to normal fruits? Basically, it ensures that the plant's seed is dispersed. The many fruit eating birds cannot help but ingest the seed prior to devouring the juicy fruit. These seeds, with their tough outer shell weakened by the bird's digestive juices, are dropped away from the mother plant to germinate surrounded by the nutrients present in the bird's dropping.
Of course the Latin name Exocarpos makes sense, translated to mean "nut or seed on the outside of a fleshy fruit".
Early settlers use
The Native Cherry excited a lot of interest and comment from English settlers, who liked its taste enough to collect the fruits for added fresh food supplies, but saw it as an example of the upside down strangeness of Australia's plant's and animals.
The fruit was eaten raw or cooked, but was only picked when deep red and ready to fall.
The early farmers were cautious of the plant, as it was known that the foliage was toxic to stock.
Aboriginal use
The Aboriginal people enjoyed these juicy, sweet fruits as a late springtime treat, rather than as a staple food. As the trees grow sparsely in the woodlands and the ripe fruits are small in number on the trees during the fruiting season, collection of large amounts was relatively difficult.
As a medicinal plant it had a number of reported uses.
The sap of the tree was used as a snake bite treatment, while the twigs provided a bitter tonic and astringent. This astringent proved valuable as a solution for stopping infection on sores and cuts.
The leaves were also use to create a smoke for repelling insects during the warmer summer months.
GPS S 31° 1' 42.5" E 151° 55' 53.5" Apsley S 31° 1' 48.1" E 151° 55' 50.3"
Apsley Grid Reference 979.42 665.79