Usually this tree has very distinctive lobed leaves very much like a breadfruit .

Bobs are much more entire , and fruits fairly easily .

Many people have told me they have large very old marangs that have never fruited.

Basella alba

Ceylon spinach will grow either from a piece or from the dark purple fruit.  It thrives in a variety of moist or wet conditions and will grow all year round.  I have it growing in a bath trough in soil covered with bagasse cane mulch in full sun. It is also growing in a water soaked gravel bed in the shade house, where it self-seeds continually.

I have transplanted the young shoots into pots in a standard potting mix and these plants are thriving on the veranda in partial shade.  It does not seem to attract any pests except my chickens will peck the leaves if they can reach them. The plant does benefit from the occasional dose of all-purpose fertiliser which gives the leaves their glossy dark green colouring.

The leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals and can be continually harvested to provide fresh greens whenever needed for cooked dishes and the younger leaves for salads.  Ceylon spinach can be substituted for English spinach or silver beet in any recipe.  When preparing, wash leaves and remove the thickest stalks before chopping and blanching.  Spinach combines well with soft cheeses and pine nuts and is great tossed fresh into Asian stir fries. The dark fruit can be used to colour jellies or as a fabric dye.

For best results, harvest young plants when around 20cm high, then, cut them back to the first node. Allow the vine to keep growing and keep harvesting, pinching out the ends of the vine to make it branch and become less leggy.  The vine can be allowed to ramble along the ground but it is easier to pick the leaves if the tendrils are trained onto a trellis.

Text and photos by Kaye Cronan

Enjoy the sweet fruits of your labour

Nick Cronan

President RFA

My yellow mangosteen is going berserk at the moment,usually it has,at any given time,flowers–small fruit–mature fruit–and two or three fruit ready to pick.

It had a bit of a holiday after the “big wet” 2010/2011 ,but now, ten months later,has had a massive crop all maturing at the same time.Great if you are commercial and want to harvest the crop all at qnce, but I hope it returns to its old ways of having just a few maturing at a time ,but throughout the year.

Summary of Mossman activities for 2011

After a very wet, wet season we kicked off in April.  The year has been quite eventful at the Mossman branch a Barbecue at our place at Julatten which was well attended. Lots of tropical fruits and nibbles, and plenty of people who like to talk about fruit trees. Wow!

In June we visited another farm in Julatten and although they had Tropical fruits they were primarily a commercial herb farm selling to the local restaurants and shops. It was interesting to see how the growing beds were hilled up so that the heavy rains of the wet season wouldn’t water log the herbs.  All in all, a very successful setup and a large variety of herbs.

July we visited two properties in the Mowbray valley both these farms were on the coastal strip near the edge of the Great Dividing Range. The soil and the climate were different to the high tableland of Julatten. Lots of well established trees and a higher rain fall.

            Mowbray Valley

August found us in Mareeba on a large converted tobacco farm which is now a successful organic tropical fruit orchard. Many varieties of established tropical fruit trees have been grown without chemicals. The only spray was organic cultures. Some of the locals live entirely on raw fruit and vegetables.

In the same month we had a trip to Mission beach to have the Tatura trellis explained by the man who designed the trellis Bas Van Den-ende. This was exciting as these fruit trees had survived on this trellis after a large cyclone had been through.

October and we all went to Whyanbeel just north of Mossman to look at lots of Mangosteens and lychees in a well established orchard. As always the ladies brought their delicious cakes etc made with tropical fruits and herbs that would astound any cook.

Our last get together for the year was at Sugarworld at Edmonton south of Cairns where we shared a barbecue with Cassowary coast and members of Sugarworld Friends. There, after many tasty delights we toured the park. Some very old and some replanted tropical fruit trees, mostly older varieties.

We are now taking a break as the wet season rolls down from the north and the anticipated 2012 Field days and the RFA AGM to be held at Mossman.

`                                                               Les Drew Mossman Branch

MOSSMAN BRANCH
mossman@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Dawn – 07 4098 2664
MACKAY BRANCH
mackay@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Paul – 07 4959 8671
CASSOWARY COAST BRANCH
cardwell@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Michael – 07 4068 3669
HINKLER BRANCH
Phone Jenny – 07 4157 9691

WORDS BY PAUL RICHARDSON

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL RICHARDSON AND ROGER GOEBEL

 A recent global survey found 780 described coconut varieties. Many have been developed specifically for certain commercially important traits. Tall varieties represent the majority in commercial production due to a higher copra yield and longer productive lifespan, but the merits of the dwarf varieties are well worth considering especially for the backyard or small scale production.

There were eight dwarf varieties selected from the Solomon Islands and imported by the Townsville council in the early 1980’s. The original plan was to replace some of the tall palms along The Strand with these impressive compact varieties for foreshore stability and tourism appeal. I won’t elaborate on the perceived danger issue but it is said “coconuts have eyes of their own and have long serve mankind”.

The original Solomon collection has been well maintained and one of the originals, the Malay Golden dwarf found its way to the far north with thanks to the old Kamerunga research station in Cairns. There are also a number of the shorter palms, known as village dwarfs, growing around the Cape York Peninsula. They are very compact palms – small enough to grow in containers and bear numerous, small, golden orange fruits with thin husks and great flavour. Others are the Red Spicata dwarf which has a stalkless fruit attached directly to the main stem of the bunch, a Malay Yellow dwarf which is also very thin husked with medium sized light flavoured fruits, and a Giant Green dwarf which has a full size crown but extremely compact trunk.

 In general, dwarf coconuts are self pollinating, precocious, high yielding, easy to harvest, and tolerant of diseases such as ‘Lethal Yellowing’ and poor soils. Many will fruit within four years in a moist tropical climate and reach full output by six years, often with coconuts touching the ground. The productive life is considerably less for the dwarf palm varieties which have life spans of approximately 40-60 years, as opposed to 80-120 years for talls. Dwarfs reach heights from 5 to 12m, depending on variety, although, at a much slower pace than talls, as generally all the palm proportions are smaller.

Plantation production of dwarf coconuts has been most successful in Brazil where the market is for drinking coconuts rather than oil production. It is estimated three billion coconuts are consumed by Brazilians annually and there is a growing demand for tetra-pak coco juice export products from USA and European markets. They are the wealthiest coconut farmers in the world as their product is easily harvested at only 8 months maturity, for peak sugar and electrolyte concentration, and at 12-14 months being fully mature and oil ready.

 WORDS BY ALISON GOTTS, PHOTOGRAPHS BY DIGBY GOTTS

Travelling across the outback of northern Queensland, we stumbled across the extraordinary story of Albert de Lestang, who leased seventy five acres from the government in 1920, to experiment with food trees on a property near Lawn Hill, which was, and still is, an oasis in the desert.

The place is called Adel’s Grove, after the initials of his name, and it is close to the Riversleigh Fossil Fields and the Lawn Hill National Park. 340 kilometres north west of Mt Isa.

He was a fanatical plant collector and sold and traded seeds with nurseries and botanical gardens throughout the world. By 1939 he had planted and recorded over 1000 varieties of plants. Water from the creek was carried in kerosene tins to the garden, and channels were created to divert the water to irrigate the trees.

In early 1950 disaster struck and a man-made fire destroyed all his buildings and records while he was away, though the fruit orchard survived. In the same year he then experienced record floods and a plague of rats which ring-barked his orchard.

An extract from a letter Albert de Lestang wrote to David Gordon, Nurseryman in Glenmorgan, 18^th September, 1952, shows his despair:

“The priceless botanical collection of over 2000 varieties have been abandoned, the gardens overrun by saplings, kunai grass and sword tussocks; what the fire left of the fences is wreck, yards gone, home site bare of buildings but the flimsy shack I live in. What still stands of the one time glorious gardens is the fruit plantation I try to maintain for a living. Having cut all experimental work for lack of equipment and labour, too old and weak to carry on alone, failure to find one to take over from me at death. Since the place is destined to revert to wilderness is better now than later.”

Albert died in 1959 in a nursing home at Charters Towers. He was seventy five years old.

The question is ‘how much of Albert’s botanical legacy can still be found at Adel’s Grove?’ Adel’s Grove is now a privately run camping ground and restaurant, offering tours of the area to visitors, on the banks of the Lawn Hill Creek. The oasis that Albert depended on to keep his plants alive, now provides a picturesque spot for campers, amongst the remnants of his fruit plantation.

A botanical list which was recorded by de Lestang in 1939 of the species he had introduced is still available. Scanning the list, which has more than 600 species on it, some rare fruit names draw the eye:

Artocarpus communis,

Artocarpus integerifolia,

Averrhoa carambola,

Barringtonia edulis,

Diospyros discolor,

Eugenia brasiliensis,

Feijoa sellowiana,  

Inga pulcherrima,

Lucuma nervosa, 

Macadamia integrifolia,

Monstera deliciosa,

Mangifera foetida,

Myristica fragrans,

Nephelium lappaceum,

Passiflora foetida,

Pometia pinnata,

Psidium guajava,

Tamarindus indica,

Terminalia catappa,

Theobroma cacao,

Zalacca edulis.

We walk along the banks of the creek, and I imagine what the area would have been like in the 1930s and 1940s, and look for evidence. There are many large Mango trees still thriving and burnt out mango stumps standing as monuments.  The mango harvest would still be bountiful – November may be a good time to visit.  Lime trees are scattered through the area, but apart from some bamboo clumps, there are some cassias, a custard apple sucker growing out of a stump, but no other fruit trees.

A conversation with Albert begins in my mind. What fruit trees thrived here, under his gentle care? What did he learn about growing rambutans, fifty years before the rambutan industry started in tropical Queensland? We have tried to grow Salaks and we wonder – how successful were they for him? This is a special place for a rare fruit enthusiast to explore, and rake over the ghosts.