The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Cocky apple

Planchonia careya, Lecythidaceae

The cocky apple, or cockatoo apple, is a deciduous tree 4 to 15 m tall with thick, corky, fissured bark, growing mainly in open forest but also on the margins of rainforest and in monsoon forest, from sea level to 600 m3. It is found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, south to coastal central Queensland, and in New Guinea3; Kew gives its range as New Guinea to northern Australia2.

Its large flowers have white petals, pink at the base, and usually 120 to 170 long stamens3. The fruit is egg-shaped to ellipsoid and smooth, 5 to 9.6 cm long including the persistent calyx, with small flat seeds in a fibrous flesh, and has been reported as edible3. The bark contains saponin and is a well-known fish poison in north-eastern Queensland3.

Banks and Solander collected it at Cape Grafton, and their specimen became the type of Cumbia australis, a name published in 1901 in the Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook’s Voyage Round the World3. Its other common name, billy goat plum, makes it a plum as well as an apple3.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Planchonia careya, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Planchonia careya, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "New Guinea to N. Australia".
  3. Planchonia careya, Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, online edition, CSIRO. Supports: the names cocky apple, cockatoo apple and billy goat plum; the tree, its bark, flowers and fruit; the fruit reported as edible; its distribution and habitats; the bark as a fish poison containing saponin; the type of Cumbia australis collected at Cape Grafton by Banks and Solander.