Family: Santalaceae
Genus: Exocarpos
Exocarpos cupressiformis: Common native cherry
Erect, leafless tree. Golden brown. Neat tidy shape like a conifer. Pyramidal in shape.
Hemi-parasitic. The roots attach to a big plant. The roots extract water plus nutrients from the other plant. The native cherry can photosynthesize for itself.
More mature plants depend less on parasitism.
Flowers are small cream flowers in spring often ignored. Clusters on spikes 3 to 6mm long.
Fruit is red and edible. Only one flower per spike forms fruit. A hard, green nut. The nut swells, ripens and turns red.
The seed remains on the outside of the fleshy fruit.
Latin word exocarpos means outside the fruit.
Height 3 to 8m.
Distribution: Queensland, NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania.
The wood has been much used by aborigines and early furniture makers. Wood is straight.
Early settlers used branches as Christmas trees.
There is a corpse of them on the foreshore track.
Genus: Exocarpos
Exocarpos cupressiformis: Common native cherry
Erect, leafless tree. Golden brown. Neat tidy shape like a conifer. Pyramidal in shape.
Hemi-parasitic. The roots attach to a big plant. The roots extract water plus nutrients from the other plant. The native cherry can photosynthesize for itself.
More mature plants depend less on parasitism.
Flowers are small cream flowers in spring often ignored. Clusters on spikes 3 to 6mm long.
Fruit is red and edible. Only one flower per spike forms fruit. A hard, green nut. The nut swells, ripens and turns red.
The seed remains on the outside of the fleshy fruit.
Latin word exocarpos means outside the fruit.
Height 3 to 8m.
Distribution: Queensland, NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania.
The wood has been much used by aborigines and early furniture makers. Wood is straight.
Early settlers used branches as Christmas trees.
There is a corpse of them on the foreshore track.