NARROW LEAFED BOTTLE TREE
Brachychiton rupestris
Plant Family
Malvaceae (previously Sterculiaceae)
Alternative Common Names
Queensland bottle tree


Medium tree 9 -12 m high. Has a distinctive bulbous lover trunk, hence name bottle tree, which can eventually have a girth of 6 -10 m. Deciduous, losing its leaves between September and December.
Leaves - are simple or divided, with one or more narrow leaf blades up to 11 cm long and 2 cm wide.
Flowers - cream-coloured
Pods - follows flowering with small woody boat-shaped follicles that ripen from November to May.
Flowering September to November.
Indigenous uses - roots of young plants were a food source and also tapped for water. Fibrous inner bark, seeds after roasting and secretions from the trunk that were induced by wounds were all consumed.
Habitat
As a drought deciduous succulent tree, it adapts readily to cultivation and is tolerant of a range of soils and temperatures. It is a key component and emergent tree in the endangered central semi-evergreen vine thickets—also known as bottletree scrub—of the Queensland Brigalow Belt. Remnant trees are often left by farmers on cleared land for their value as shade and fodder trees.
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