Two of my favourite local native north Australian winter flowering trees.

As it's mid-Winter downunder, I thought I would share two great native northern Oz trees that flower at this time of the year.

In Australia there are two true native Kapoks. There is our local species and the one which is very common in Kakadu National Park, called Cochlospermum fraseri, which looks almost identical except for the leaf shape.

Every winter I am always impressed by the brilliant splashes of golden yellow which our local native Kapok Tree gives to the otherwise drab hillsides around my place.  Cochlospermum gillivraei is  a common sight not only on the rocky slopes here, but also in the vine thicket gullies on the outskirts of my city and they're commonly used in footpath and park plantings in our suburbs.






Our native Kapok loses all its leaves before flowering, which makes the flowering more obvious. The large golden yellow flowers have these beautiful contrasting stamens in the centre.

The flowers themselves are edible and are supposedly quite pleasant, according to indigenous locals. The blooms have been compared to marshmallows!! Although more than 90% water, they are surprisingly high in Vitamin C! The tap root of young Kapok plants is also edible when roasted.


After the yellow flowers are pollinated, large, globular, green, papery fruit develop, which eventually turn brown and split along the seams to reveal two contrasting layers.  This fruit will then release numerous seeds covered by long hairs. The small black seeds are woven in a dense mat of fine silky hairs. This material is known as ‘kapok’.



Well that was the first great native winter bloomer ... now for another.

Meet our native Silk Cotton Tree with its flamboyant scarlet blooms.  This tree is also sometimes known as Red Kapok.  Bombax ceiba leiocarpum, is a type of native cotton tree that is found here in northern Australia. It grows along the northern rivers and streams in the bush and also in coastal vine thickets around the sand dunes near the coast.



It can also be found in many gardens as well as in our local parks and green areas.  I'm lucky enough to have a neighbour who has a magnificent old specimen outside their property.



This tree has a thorny trunk and after shedding its leaves in the dry season, large waxy bright red flowers emerge. These are around 10 cms across and they hang singly or in small clusters at the end of the branches. These flowers are fragrant and in days gone by, the blooms were collected once they had fallen and were used as table decoration.





The bombax fruit is a large, oblong woody capsule that splits when ripe. This allows the seeds to float out in their woolly coats.

The taproot is edible and is an example of Australian indigenous food.  Apparently, the fleshy roots of young Bombax trees can be roasted and eaten like carrots.

Hope you enjoyed this introduction to two of my favourite winter blooming native trees. They provide quite spectacular colour in the middle of our long ‘dry’ season.

A Mid-Winter Wander Around my little Courtyard Garden.

The other garden areas on my property are all rather boring and drab ... there are lots of palms, ferns, hibiscus and duranta repens shrubs, acalyphas and some crotons, but these areas don't change much at all during the year ... remaining, for the most part, various shades of green with a little colour here and there throughout all the seasons. 

There are no great expanses of lush green lawn.  There are no lovely borders full of stunning perennials.  There are just a few trees that bloom at different times of the year ... but that's the full extent of any seasonal change in colour.

The Courtyard Garden however, is my sanctuary where I can have other colours.  So here's a look at how all the potted plants are progressing as we approach Spring.  July in this part of the world is mid-Winter ... and my location in Australia means it's always a mild winter (similar to Summer in other parts of the northern hemisphere!)

Just an extra little note:  prepare yourself for the dulcet tones of my Aussie accent on the video!!

My own native 'Bush Tucker' tree - Sterculia Quadrifida.

The definition of ‘bush tucker’ would be: any edible, native Australian flora and fauna that was present before European colonisation which was harvested or hunted in the bush by our country's original inhabitants ... the Aborigines.

I have a 'Bush Tucker' tree in my courtyard that is native to the eastern coastal strip from northern New South Wales to far north Queensland ... and up into Papua New Guinea.  Not only were the seeds used as food by the Aboriginal people, the bark was used to weave baskets. The inner bark of this tree was also important to them as a source of string, which was used for rope, fishing nets and fishing line. 

This tree is commonly called the 'Peanut Tree' - Sterculia quadrifida.  Not only is the 'Bush Tucker' aspect of this tree interesting, it is also one of our very rare native Winter-deciduous trees.

It grows to a height of 5 -10 metres and has a spreading canopy, dropping it's leaves during Winter and when flowering.  The leaves are dark green and broad egg-shaped or sometimes heart-shaped at the base.  Around my area of north Queensland the Peanut Tree can start to shed leaves in May ... which is the end of Autumn. Leaves will then begin to regrow after the tree has fruited ...  this is usually around August to September, which is the end of Winter into early Spring. 

Here it is in my courtyard garden ... first, when covered in leaves ... and next, when it's beginning to drop it's leaves:

The creamy-white, lemon-scented flowers of this tree are rather inconspicuous. They are borne in small clusters in the upper axils, and occur from November to January (Summer in Australia).

The most distinctive feature of this native tree is the fruit. 

The fruits are clusters of large, leathery, boat-shaped pods up to 8 cm long which, change from green to an eye-catching orangey-red at maturity. 

Stage 1 - Green pods:

Stage 2 - Changing to orangey-red:

At this stage it splits open to reveal black seeds about the size of a peanut. The seeds are edible and are supposed to taste like peanuts ... never tried them myself! ... but for those who do wish to try them, it's recommended that the seed coat or testa should be removed first.  Birds, on the other hand, enjoy them 'au natural'!

Popping open:

Seeds:

The edible seed is called ‘egng edndan’ in Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola; ‘mayi pinta’ in Pakanh – which are the traditional languages of the Aboriginal people in central Cape York Peninsula. Their colloquial name for this tree is ‘Monkeynut Tree’.  

The pods stay open for quite some time – looking a bit like a flower and then they drop off, littering the pavers in the Courtyard Garden and making a bit of a mess!

This tree, despite being quite messy during the Autumn/early Winter, is a valuable shade tree during Summer ... when it provides lots of cover over the courtyard area ... and then during Winter, when it's deciduous, it allows lots of light onto the courtyard garden for the winter and spring flowering annuals.