Local fruit: Black apple, Planchonella australis

These were a complete surprise to me, but it was nice to discover a native fruit tree, the black apple, in the forest here.

I discovered them by chance after following the dog when she took off into the forest. She took off while I was working on the Mid-levels garden, which is surrounded by rainforest, so I went off to find her. She doesn’t go far but we are worried about her finding a snake, so we tend to stop what we are doing and follow the dog. It turned out she was chasing a brush turkey, which easily flew up into a tree (going up into trees still baffles her, she doesn’t look up). But the turkey had been attracted by fallen fruit which was in big numbers and unblemished on the ground, so I had a taste and collected some.

Not being all that familiar with the trees here yet, I supposed that they were Davidson’s plums, and they look similar, but the taste was very different. Far from the intense sourness of the Davidson’s, these have a pleasant sweet taste out of hand. Then there was the seed, which is completely different, but most of all I couldn’t see anything like the distinctive form of a Davidson’s plum tree (although it’s hard to make out anything in the rainforest canopy, I couldn’t see any plums up there either).

After no luck with word searches online, I happened across a photo in the list for an unrelated local plant, and realised I had found my fruit. It’s the black apple (wild plum, black plum), Planchonella australis, a widespread species here in coastal NSW. A plum is a much better description than an apple I think.

Planchonella australis fruit

There’s not much online about it, but one site said it makes great jam, so I gave stewing it a go. Cooking released intensely red juice, but also an unpleasant astringency and then bitterness, which I think came from the skin. If there’s a next time I’ll carefully peel them.

Fresh they were pleasant but dry, and cooking them hadn’t made me want to give them another go, but a couple of days later I went for another look and found another set of trees a little further in to the forest. The fruit this time had a better flavour, actually quite refreshing in the mouth after a walk, and was softer as well, so I collected the seeds from the biggest ones.

I’ll give them a go in pots. If they succeed as seedlings there are a few lantana-infested spots I would happily convert to black apple stands, and aside from the fruit which can feed wildlife if not us, the wood is useful in the long-term. I couldn’t see anything about it being selected or bred for better fruit, as the Davidson’s has. Maybe there’s potential there.

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