Vitex melicopea
F. Muell.
Vitex
(c) Mark C, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Mark C
(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit flesh is edible.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. The plants grow naturally in rainforest in Queensland in Australia. In tropical Queensland it grows from sea level to 340 m altitude.
Australia*,
How to Identify
A tree. It grows 30 m high. It can have buttresses. The leaves are compound and opposite. There are 3-5 leaflets and these are 3-15 cm long. The fruit is 4-16 mm across. They occur singly or in bunches on the ends of branches. The ripe fruit can be pink, red, black or brown. The fruit squashed between the fingers leave a yellow stain. There are several seeds within a stony layer. The seeds are 2.5 mm long by 1.5 mm wide. The flesh is edible.
How to Grow
Plants are grown from seed. They are slow to germinate. This can take 1-2 years. Plants can be grown from cuttings.
Notes
Also put in the family Verbenaceae.
References (5)
- Anon., 2003, Native Plants for the Fitzroy basin. Society for Growing Australian Plants Inc. (Rockhampton Branch) p 76
- Cooper W & Cooper W T, 1994, Fruits of the Rain Forest. RD Press p 292
- Cooper, W. and Cooper, W., 2004, Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest. Nokomis Editions, Victoria, Australia. p 241
- Melzer, R. & Plumb, J., 2011, Plants of Capricornia. Belgamba, Rockhampton. p 154
- Nicholson, N & H., 1996, Australian Rainforest Plants 2, Terania Rainforest Publishing. NSW. p 64
