Long Grass Nature Refuge
Fauna and Flora Detail
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Scientific Name
Common Name
Type
Notes
Small to medium tree to 20m tall from Mt Dromedary, NSW to Torres Strait, far Nth QLD, Torres Strait, NT and WA. A natural coloniser / pioneer in a huge range of conditions. Occupies dry, littoral and subtropical rainforest and adjoining Eucalypt forest/woodland. Can sometimes regenerate from underground stem. Mottled smooth light greay bark becomes darker and furrowed with age. Lichens often found on older specimens. Golden-brown new shoots have velvety hairs. Leaves are entire, simple, alternate with an elliptical shape up to 15cm long. The undersurface of the leaf blade is silvery/white. Venation prominent and yellowish below, sunken above. Flowers are cream/green, scented panicles arising at branchlet ends from November-March. Flowers are five-petalled. Fruit is a dull black, globular drupe up to 10mm diameter with a raised ring around middle. The powdery red fleshof the drupe covers two hard cells each containing a single seed. Seeds can persist on the branches for several months. Not favoured in gardens because of its occasionally raggedy appearance. Not really ornamental, though some may disagree. Propagate from seed which need to be scarified. Germination is erratic. Cuttings strike readily. This is a very tough and relatively fast growing tree. The wood has some use as a cabinet timber species. The leaves are eaten by many insects often giving the tree a ragged appearance, though these insects are attractive to many native birds, especially cockatoos. Aborigines used crushed leaves and berries as a fish poison. Medicinally, leaves were crushed, mixed with water and applied as a head bath to reduce headache and sore eyes. Infusions of the bark and root were rubbed on bodies to reduce muscular ache or gargled to cure toothache. New shoots smell of sarsaparilla when crushed. The crushed leaves can be lathered to produce a bush soap, as they contain saponin. Host plant for the Small Green-banded Blue butterfly. Prounounced Al-fit-O-nee-a. Many common names exist, indicating its widespread human use. Soap tree/ash/wood, mountain/red ash, leather-jacket, cooper’s wood, white myrtle/leaf, foam bark, mee/mel-a-mee, sarsaparilla, red tweedie/ash/almond, humhug, ane, murrung, nono gwyinandie, culgera-cul-era, coraminga.
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