cassowary plum

Description:

The cassowary plum is a member of a genus of 10-15 species of small evergreen trees or shrubs, native to tropical Asia, Australia, Madagascar, the Seychelles, and islands in the western Pacific Ocean. This particular species, native to New Guinea and northern Australia, gets its common name from the fact that cassowaries commonly eat this fruit. The plums' sap is poisonous to most animals, including humans, but not cassowaries, which consume the fruit with no ill effects; their short and fast digestive system passes the fruit relatively intact. Cassowary plums are more likely to grow once they have been through a cassowary. The genus name comes from Roman/Greek mythology (Cerberus/Kerberos) and refers to a multi-headed hound which guarded the underworld preventing the dead from escaping. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus This is fitting because all parts of the plant are poisonous, containing cerberin, a cardiac glycoside that blocks electric impulses in the body (including the beating of the heart). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerbera

Habitat:

This spotting in mixed coastal freshwater swamp forest and sago swamp.

Notes:

See also http://www.pngplants.org/PNGtrees/TreeDe... A flower, possibly from this species, can be seen here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/696... Find a relative of the same genus (also spotted in Papua) here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/718...