Cheese tree

Description:

The cheese tree gains its common name for its cheese-shaped fruit. It grows as a woody shrub or small tree to 8 metres (26 ft), although occasionally reaching 30 metres (98 ft), with flaky brownish-grey bark. It has simple alternate-arranged elliptical leaves 3–10 centimetres (1.2–3.9 in) in length and −-5.5 centimetres (−0.98 in) wide; the species may be partly deciduous in winter. Flowering may occur at any time of year; the cheese tree has both single female and male flowers, which are found in groups of three. Both sexes are green-yellow, with the male flowers about 0.7 cm and the female 0.5 cm in diameter. The most notable feature are the small pumpkin-shaped fruit, which are green at first before turning shades of white and pink. Divided into segments radially, they eventually split open to reveal bright red 0.5 cm seeds from November to April.

Habitat:

Garden