Crescent Head, NSW, Australia. © JPM, 2023. Once again we found ourselves off on another holiday adventure. Off we drove from Sydney to a place we had never been, South West Rocks, on the coast near Kempsey, New South Wales. It was a quiet town with plenty of peaceful, country road driving for our five day stay.
Of course, amidst our many bush roamings I kept my eye out for some of the local tucker. Here’s a sample of what I found:
Blackberry nightshade (Solanum americanum) is common the whole length of Australia's east coast. Often standing accused as being the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), blackberry nightshade can be enjoyed when the fruits are wholly black and glossy. Don't eat too much in one sitting, though! This specimen had very interesting purple foliage, perhaps indicative of a hybrid crossbreed. © JPM, 2023. Coast wattle (Acacia longifolia sub. sophorae) was in full bloom everywhere! Winter is in fact when one will see a plethora of our national flower across the landscape, making them easy to mark for pod harvest later in the year between November-January. It is very important to correctly identify edible wattleseed species from inedible ones. © JPM, 2023. Two species of native raspberries (Rubus parvifolius and R. moluccanus) were on offer, even so late in the season! There were not many fruits to be found in winter, but there were so many brambles everywhere I have now marked it as a "to return!" location. © JPM, 2023. Coastal pandanus (Pandanus tectorius) manages to float its way quite far south. Here at Crescent Head (famous for its beautifully curled surf), ripe pandan fruit were tumbling to the ground. Locals looked at me utterly perplexed as I gathered the hard, knobbly segments, wondering what on earth they can possibly be used for. Roasted segments can be split open with a hacksaw and the coconut-flavoured seeds extracted for consumption. It is a laborious task suited to an earlier age when sitting around occupied most of the day's activities. © JPM, 2023. Warrigal greens (Tetragonia tetragonoides, left) and sea rocket (Cakile maritima, centre and right) can be found near Australian beaches in subtropical and temperate climes. I actually ate these on my sandwiches for our week-long stay in the area. Warrigal is best boiled like spinach prior to comsumption, and sea rocket used sparingly due to its spicy mustard piquancy. © JPM, 2023. Lawyer vine (Smilax australis) is a native sarsaparilla which grew prolifically in the coastal forests across the region. I found its fruit to be insipid and bitter, and not worth the bother to harvest. The tender growing tips (bottom right), however, were delicious additions to a winter salad. I still have not tried or harvested a root from this species. © JPM, 2023. Where there's lawyer vine, sweet sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla) is never far behind! This is by far my favourite species of native sarsaparilla due to its medicinal, liquorice-flavoured pungency which will not be to everyone's taste. Leaves from this species make excellent tea, fresh or dried, berries can be eaten heartily, and I even tried the growing shoots and was overwhelmed with their powerful sarsaparilla flavour. © JPM, 2023. Scrambling lily (Geitonoplesium cymosum) is a native creeper which can be distinguished from wombat berry (Eustrephus latifolius) on account of its white flowers and inedible black fruit (the edible wombat berry has yellow fruit and pinkish flowers, but otherwise looks similar). Tim Low notes on his entry for wombat berry that scrambling lily's new season shoots can be eaten like asparagus greens, even if its black fruits are toxic. I couldn't be bothered when I had so much warrigal, a superior native green, available to eat. © JPM, 2023. Mangroves (Avicennia species) enjoy a global distribution in estuaries and mudflats the planet over. In bygone eras, the green seeds inside their woody pods were soaked for days, sometimes weeks, by starvation-striken aborigines to remove their toxins for later consumption. Nowadays the seeds, once removed from their pods, can be grated, triple-boiled, and then pureed. Tim Low assures us they taste revolting. Ha! No thanks! © JPM, 2023. Strap wattle (Acacia holosericea) was still gripping onto its previous year's seed load. Edible species' wattleseeds, such as these, should always be roasted (180 C for approx. 20-30 minutes) before eating to destroy any potential antinutrients or toxic fatty acids. © JPM, 2023. Boobialla (Myoporum boninense) occurs up and down the east coast, usually just behind the beach front. I quite enjoy the peppery flavour of the otherwise insubstantial purple berries. © JPM, 2023. One of our native grapes made an appearance (Cissus australis). I discovered recently that the throat-burning sensation which occurs after eating many species of Australia's native grapes can be avoided by discarding the tannin-riddled skins and eating only the fruit flesh. © JPM, 2023. I found two species of lilly pilly in my journeys. Common lilly pilly (Syzygium smithii, left and centre) has tough, sour fruit which I do not like very much. It was my first occasion to find blue lilly pilly (Syzygium oleosum, right), which has a more pleasant, acidic taste. © JPM, 2023. Saw sedge (Gahnia species) was once a staple grain for the central-north coast aborigines. Their reddish-orange seeds are very tough but can be ground down with some elbow grease into a passable flour. The base of the plants, like lomandra species, is also white and starchy and makes a trailside snack or salad addition. One must take extreme care when harvesting saw sedge stems; the leaves are as sharp as the name. © JPM, 2023. Native rosella (Hibiscus heterophyllus) was an stunning find! It has spiky stems, rough leaves and beautiful cream flowers with a maroon throat. Sadly it was too early in the season to find any ripe rosella fruits on this tree, but they make excellent tart additions to pies, jams and desserts. The flowers of almost all hibiscus are also edible. © JPM, 2023. There I was, minding my own business on a rainforest walk when I noticed a scattering of familiar fruits upon the ground. Plum pine (Podocarpus elatus) was probably my most excited discovery on this trip. I had recently gorged myself on these for three weeks after harvesting a bunch of them back in May. These trees, however, were wild rainforest giants whose canopies I could not even see nor photograph. The semi-dried fruits scattered on the forest floor for the next 500 metres of the walk, indicating a heavy presence of the trees above. The seed at the tip of the fruit is inedible, as is the woody core; they otherwise taste like gelatinous, pine-flavoured plums. Foods like these made life easy for the aborigines who used to live here probably when these trees were mere seedlings. © JPM, 2023. Recognising the leaves at once, this was surely a young native lasiandra (Melastoma affine, top left). This plant has beautiful dark mauve flowers (top right, flowers of the same plant in Barangaroo, Sydney). After pollination, the flowers turn into woody, hairy pods that split open when ripe, revealing edible fruity segments (Melastoma malabathricum, bottom right and left, also photographed in Sydney; this species has pink flowers and red fruit). Lasiandras adorn nature strips and private gardens across Australia and few realise the fruits are edible, staining the tongue deep blue in the process (hence the Greek scientific name, Melastoma, black/blue mouth!). © JPM, 2023. Native ginger (Alpinia caerulea) is nowhere near as potent as its spicy commercial equivalent (Zingiber officinalis). Its edible root is much milder and better suited for sauces and candying. What is of interest to the bush food forager, however, are its edible blue fruits. Crack the blue shell like an egg, peel back and suck on the angular seeds inside. They are sour and tangy, similar to tamarind paste. Spit the seeds out to grow more for the future. Aboriginal walking trails were once littered with native ginger from millennia's worth of seed chewing and spitting. © JPM, 2023. Sweet fan flower (Scaevola calendulacea), a plant I first met in my previous entry, Tessellated Treats, was once again on the menu! © JPM, 2023. This trip lead me to my first ever encounter with a rainforest long yam (Dioscorea transversa). I could not dig this one out as I was in a national park at the time, but these yams have a long, pencil-thick taproot which is white, starchy and reputedly delicious! They grow across the east coast of Australia. This one was just about to set some flowers. A keen-eyed student will notice the leaves look very similar to sweet sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla), but the flower racemes are very different. © JPM, 2023. Early nancy (Wurmbea species) is a beautifully flowered native lily. Small lillies such as these were once important bush tucker items for aboriginal tribes living on the east coast. Each plant has half a dozen or so tiny, potato-flavoured tubers which can be eaten raw or cooked, and they often grow in dense colonies (see top left photograph). Sadly, cattle, sheep and introduced rabbits have exterminated bush tucker plants like these from the majority of Australia's east coast and they can be difficult to locate. These were not harvested due to being in a national park. © JPM, 2023. Last but not least, I will include some native Australian flower/fruit pron.
[EDIT: the unidentified species were identified by “Ross” in the comments below. Thank you very much Ross!]
Dusky coral pea (Kennedia rubicunda). The hairy pea pods of this plant are toxic and should not be eaten. © JPM, 2023. Sweet wattle (Acacia suaveolens; ID credit - Ross). © JPM, 2023. Lawyer vine (Smilax australis). © JPM, 2023. Native holly (Alyxia ruscifolia). Berries are toxic to humans. © JPM, 2023. Golden everlasting (Bracteantha bracteata). © JPM, 2023. Native cranesbill (Geranium species). © JPM, 2023. Kunzea (Kunzea capitata; ID credit - Ross). © JPM, 2023. Purple flag iris (Patersonia fragilis). © JPM, 2023. White fingers (Caladenia catenata; ID credit - Ross), an edible ground orchid. NOTE: ground orchids are protected in NSW and should never be harvested. © JPM, 2023. Unphotographed, but in abundance, were many common edible weeds such as curly-leafed dock (Rumex crispus & R. obtusifolius), sow thistle (Sonchus oleracea), white clover (Trifolium repens), dandelion (Taraxacum offiniale) as well as occasional bananas, lemons and oranges growing along the Macleay River. I was looking for, but did not find, native glasswort (Sarcocornia quinqueflora), one of my favourites for pickling.
That ends this bush food foraging adventure. Join me again real soon for my next adventure to north Queensland’s tropics!
Cheers,
JP.
JP, great post thank you, your unidentified species are Sweet Wattle, Acacia suaveolens, then Kunzea capitata, and lastly Lady Fingers orchid which is in the genus Caladenia (edible tubers) - https://www.survival.ark.au/bf_caladenia.php
That looks like you had an amazing time, and I look forward to seeing more