Collected 1770: Endeavour River
Observed 2019: Mossman Gorge
The artist has expressed the soft, lush quality of the plant, including the raspberry-like fruits in this evocative, highly three dimensional portrait. The composition of radiating leaves, with painterly ‘quilted’ surfaces, reach their tips outwards as if inviting touch.
Dendrocnide moroides is a rainforest shrub with heart shaped, serrated, dark green leaves that can grow from the size of a thumbnail to more than 50 cm wide. Dense hairs on the leaves, stems and fruit look like a soft downy fur. Even the slightest touch can cause excruciating pain. The tip of the hair is a small bulb that breaks off on contact, then the hair penetrates the skin, injecting a neurotoxin.
Interestingly, many leaf chewing insects and sap suckers are able to eat the plant, as can the red-legged pademelon that has been known to strip entire plants of their leaves overnight.