KURRAJONG

Tree 15 – 20 m tall with large canopy. The trunk thick with a smooth grey bark.

Leaves - alternate, bright shiny-green, usually 3 lobed, 10-15 cm long including the pointed lobes.

Flowers - bell-shaped, about .5cm long, creamy white with numerous red spots inside, in dense clusters on the ends of long stalks which arise from the leaf axils.

Pods - a distinctive boat shaped pod which turns black when ripe, splitting to expose numerous seeds amongst dense fine yellow fairs.

Flowering summer.

Indigenous uses - seeds were eaten raw or roasted after removal of irritating yellow hairs. Drink made from seeds quite like coffee. Roots once were tapped for water in times of drought, the young roots are eaten, as well as the gum produced on the tree. Bark used to make string.