Kangaroo apple

Description:

Medium sized (3 metres) shrub with (20cm) smooth, veined leaves, dark thin stems spreading in random directions, small 25mm pale purple flowers from which develop egg shaped green fruit 25mm long, which change colour with age through yellow, orange to red. Younger plants may show leaves with multi-lobes.

Habitat:

Sclerophyll forest and grasslands in south-east Australia.

Notes:

Fruits are toxic until very mature (red-orange). At that point they are still very tart to taste but were a regular food of the indigenous people.