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Project Noah Nature School
Elaeocarpus grandis (syn. E. angustifolius)
The Blue Quandong (aka Blue Marble Tree and Blue Fig) is a rainforest canopy tree often seen stretching above the general tree line up to 50 metres tall. This tree usually has a single trunk and elaborate buttressed roots. It belongs to the family Elaeocarpaceae, and is an Australian native species. Found in coastal and mountain rainforests of eastern Australia. The fruit of this species is round and blue, 25-30mm in diameter, and has a seed with deep convolutions in its shell. It is eaten whole, and thus dispersed, by cassowaries, woompoo pigeon and spectacled flying foxes, which pass the nut undamaged. The fruit can be seen at one of my later spottings: https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/41...
Occurs in sub-tropical rainforest and along moist, scrubby watercourses. This specimen was spotted in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, Mt. Coot-Tha, in a very large, well-established sub-tropical rainforest section of the gardens.
I was drawn to this tree simply because of its trunk. It appeared to have a definite ribbing feature, and it was highlighted by the soft, filtered light shining through the canopy. I've never seen a tree with this type of feature before.
Spotted on Jun 20, 2013
Submitted on Jun 26, 2013
2 Comments
This was a particularly handsome one. I've seen them in a few places now.
Incredible tree. Another one to envy from down south.