Collected 1770: Endeavour River, Bustard Bay, Bay of Inlets, Thirsty Sound
Observed 2018: Sherwood Arboretum
This vibrant and intensely detailed watercolour depicts the characteristically glossy leaves which may have up to eleven elliptical leaflets. A cluster of ripening fruit nestles in the centre. The artist has also provided a fascinating and lyrical sequence of the fruit ripening and senescing (dying).
These dark, globular fruit vary in taste. Those that have red purplish flesh are quite tart, those with a pale greenish white flesh are milder but less tasty. Some fruit are half red – half white, and these are reportedly delicious!
Indigenous peoples have been known to bury the fruit underground to assist with the ripening process. Joseph Banks’ journal records that ‘these when gathered off from the tree were very hard and disagreeable but after being kept for a few days became soft and tasted much like indifferent Damsons’.
The fruit can either be eaten raw, cooked into jam or jelly, used to flavour meat, or to make wine or a liquor.