The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Emu apple

Owenia acidula, Meliaceae

The emu apple is a tree 3 to 10 m high with drooping branches and resinous buds3. Its leaves are divided into 14 to 34 narrow leaflets, and its fruit is a round drupe, reddish purple and 20 to 35 mm across3. It grows scattered on the plains of north-western New South Wales, and in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory; Kew records it only from Australia2,3. The fruit is edible, and the foliage is sometimes cut as fodder for stock3.

Its colonial names compare it with several fruits4. Morris’s Austral English of 1898 gives emu apple, mooley apple in western New South Wales, native nectarine, native peach and native quince, all for this one tree; the same dictionary gives emu apple also for Petalostigma quadriloculare4. The flora of New South Wales knows Owenia acidula as gruie, colane and gooya3.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Owenia acidula, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Owenia acidula, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "Australia".
  3. Owenia acidula, PlantNET, National Herbarium of New South Wales. Supports: the tree, its leaves and its fruit, a round reddish-purple drupe 20 to 35 mm across; scattered on the plains of north-western New South Wales, and in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory; the edible fruit and the foliage cut for fodder; the names gruie, colane and gooya.
  4. Austral English: a dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages, entries Apple, Mooley-Apple, Native Nectarine, Native Quince and Peach, Native, Edward E. Morris, Project Gutenberg, 1898. Supports: emu apple, mooley apple (a western New South Wales name), native nectarine, native quince and native peach for Owenia acidula; emu apple also for Petalostigma quadriloculare.