Bush plum
| Bush plum | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Terminalia ferdinandiana | ||||||||||||
| Exell |
The bush plum ( Terminalia ferdinandiana ) is a species of the winged family (Combretaceae). It is distributed over the tropical forest area of northwestern Australia in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to the east of Arnhem Land . The fruits are also called Gubinge , in English Billygoat , Billygoat Plum , Kakadu plum and in the Aboriginal language Murunga . The fruits have the highest concentration of vitamin C of all plant species examined so far; At 2300 to 3150 mg per 100 g of pulp, the content is around 50 times higher than that of oranges .
description
Terminalia ferdinandiana grows as a deciduous, slender, small to medium-sized tree with a spreading crown and usually reaches heights of up to 14 meters; there are also individual trees that can reach heights of up to 30 meters. The bark is cracked, medium gray to cream-colored and orange.
The alternate, pseudo whorlly, arranged at the branch ends and with a length of up to 25 centimeters and a width of up to 15 centimeters, pale green and entire leaves are shed in the dry season from July to August. The long-stalked leaves are elliptical to obovate and rounded to blunt or pointed to acuminate, with a lighter and often alternating, pinnate, raised vein on the underside . Stipules are missing.
Axillary and at the ends of branches are spiked inflorescences formed. The small, five-fold and sessile or "pseudo-stemmed" flowers with a simple flower cover are white and strongly scented. The cup-shaped overgrown tepals (sepals) have 5 triangular tips. The perigone cup is hairy inside. The 10 stamens are long and protruding, with white stamens. The ovary is underneath, in a cylindrical flower cup . There is a hairy, orange discus . The flowering period extends from September to December, in the southern hemisphere from spring to summer.
When ripe from March to October, olive-colored or yellow-green to reddish and fleshy, as well as solitary, ellipsoidal and bare stone fruit ( false fruit ) is about 2–3 centimeters long and about 1–1.5 cm in diameter and the size of an almond -shaped with a short beak at its tip. The light brownish, fibrous and buoyant stone kernels (nuts) are somewhat flattened and elliptical, they usually contain an elongated, about 1 centimeter long seed with a thin, papery seed coat . The stone cores can swim for a long time.
The very acidic pulp is edible and contains a very high content of vitamin C, the Aborigines also eat it raw, but it has a drying effect in the mouth, which is not very pleasant.
use
The fruit, known in Australia as cockatoo plums , is one of the so-called bush food and has been eaten by the Aborigines for tens of thousands of years. They usually ate the small fruits raw. Interestingly, this fruit became popular again with the Aborigines after the high vitamin C content became known. Today the Aborigines collect the fruits again.
The fruit is used for jams and sauces. It is also used in fruit juices, ice cream, cosmetics, condiments and pharmaceutical items.
A first study by Vic Cherikoff at the University of Sydney found vitamin C levels of 3.2%, after which fruits were found that were more than 5%. In addition, a high proportion of folic acid was measured in the bush plum , and further studies found a remarkably high proportion of polyphenolic antioxidants .
Today plum is widely used as an ingredient in cosmetics, but a market for medicinal foods ( nutraceuticals ) and fortified beverages is slowly developing . Since the trees are experimentally grown and harvested in plantations with irrigated fields and the fruits are delivered to distant markets, the vitamin C content can decrease with the difficult growing conditions, which also has to do with the isolated tree population. Aboriginal communities are benefiting from the growing demand for this fruit, which grows on the northern tip of Australia. But the high prices that are paid for the fruit mean that more and more illegal pickers participate in the harvest.
Taxonomy
The first publication of this species was in 1860 by Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller under the name Terminalia edulis (nom. Illeg. Non Blanco ) in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiæ , Volume 2 (XVI), p. 151, but was invalid because this name was already published in 1845 Francisco Manuel Blanco in Flora de Filipinas 2, p. 265, for a different species. The valid name Terminalia ferdinandiana was published in 1935 by Arthur Wallis Exell in Journal of Botany, British and Foreign , 73, p. 263. The epithet ferdinandiana refers to the first name Ferdinand von Heinrich von Mueller.
Further synonyms for Terminalia ferdinandiana Exell are Terminalia latipes subsp. psilocarpa Pedley and Myrobalanus edulis Kuntze .
literature
- Vic Cherikoff: The Bushfood Handbook , ISBN 0-7316-6904-5 .
- Tim Low: Wild Food Plants of Australia , ISBN 0-207-14383-8 .
Web links
- Terminalia ferdinandiana at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Map of the distribution area in Western Australia and brief description at FloraBase - the Western Australian Flora.
- Values from studies on the fruit ( Memento from July 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at the Australian Food Composition Database, NUTTAB 2006.
- Terminalia ferdinandiana Newsletter 1, March 2007 ( Memento of August 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 141 kB), at Charles Darwin University.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Robert Hegnauer : Chemotaxonomy of plants: an overview of the distribution and the systematic importance of plant substances. Volume 8, Birkhäuser, Basel 1989, ISBN 3-7643-1895-3 , p. 260.
- ^ A b c Jan Sked: Terminalia ferdinandiana. at Native Plants Queensland ( memento of the original from October 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana) , In: The Australian New Crops Newsletter. Issue No 10, 1998 ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Good nosh in the bush. In: New Scientist . October 2, 1993 - Retrieved January 2007.
- ↑ Bushtucker harvest sparks controversy ( Memento December 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- ↑ online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- ^ Entry at Australian National Botanic Gardens .
