August is a rewarding month to look down as well as up in the rainforest. With the dry season underway, a number of native trees are dropping fruit, creating an important food source for cassowaries, birds, and bats.
At the C4 Arboretum, the first Rosy Apples (Phaleria clerodendron) have just begun to fall. These striking red fruits look almost edible but they’re toxic to humans. Cassowaries, fruit-doves, and flying foxes do eat them and when cassowaries swallow them whole, they carry the seeds through the forest and deposit them far from the parent tree, helping new rainforest to grow.
Other species fruiting in August:
- Arytera divaricata (Rose Tamarind)
- Beilschmiedia obtusifolia (Blush Walnut)
- Breynia stipitata (Bridle Bush)
- Buckinghamia celissima (Ivory Curl)
- Cananga odorata (Macassar Oil Tree)
- Cardwellia sublimis (Northern Silky Oak)
- Cerbera floribunda (Cassowary Plum)
- Clerodendron inerme (Harmless Clerodendron)
- Colubrina asiatica (Beach Berry Bush)
- Dillenia alata (Red Beech)
- Diospyros hebeclapa (Scrub Ebony)
- Elaeocarpus angustifolius (Blue Quandong)
- Elaeocarpus bancroftii (Johnstone River Almond)
- Endiandra globosa (Ball Fruited Walnut)
- Endiandra insignis (Hairy Walnut)
- Fagraea cambagei (Pink Jitta)
- Ficus benjamina (Cluster Fig)
- Ficus microcarpa (Indian Laurel Fig)
- Ficus pleurocarpa (Banana Fig)
- Ficus racemosa (Fig Wood)
- Glochidion phillipieum (Daintree Cheese Tree)
- Glochidion sumatranum (Button Wood)
- Halfordia kendack (Saffronheart)
- Intsia bijuga (Kwila)
- Irvingbaileya australis (Wax Berry)
- Litsea leefeana (Bollywood)
- Livistonia drudei (Cabbage Palm)
- Melaleuca leucadendra (Weeping Paperbark)
- Morinda citrifolia (Cheesefruit)
- Myristic insipidia (Native Nutmeg)
- Neolitsea dealbata (Grey Bollygum)
- Planchonella chartacea (Boxwood)
- Planchonella obovoides (Yellow Teak)
- Planchonella pohlmaniana (Yellow Boxwood)
- Polyscias murrayi (Pencil Cedar)
- Randia fitzalanii (Brown Gardenia)
- Rhus taitensis (Sumac)
- Syzygium alliiligneum (Onion Wood)
- Syzygium cormiflorum (Bumpy Satinash)
- Syzygium gustavoides (Water Gum)
- Syzygium kuranda (Kuranda Satinash)