Persoonia rigida
R. Br.
Hairy Geebung, Stiff Geebung
(c) Reiner Richter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Reiner Richter
(c) Tracie, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Tracie
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What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked, though it is insipid and astringent. It has a sweet, fibrous pulp attached to one large seed, tasting somewhat like sweet cotton wool. Despite this, it is relished by Australian Aborigines.
Where to Find It
It grows in temperate places. It grows in dry forest and often on rocky soils. It needs well drained acid soils. It can grow in light shade.
Australia*,
How to Identify
A medium sized shrub. It grows 1-2.5 m high and spreads 0.7-2.5 m wide. Young growth is hairy and often reddish. There are many spreading branches. The leaves are 1.5-5 cm long by 0.4-2 cm wide. They are broadly sword shaped or spoon shaped. They are deep green and alternate. They curve inwards. The flowers are 1 cm across. They are yellow. They occur on short leafy stalks at the ends of branches. The fruit is fleshy with a hard stone inside. They are 1.2 cm long by 1 cm wide. They are green or purple.
How to Grow
Requires a warm position in full sun in a freely draining preferably sandy slightly acid soil, preferring a pH around 6.3 to 6.5. Soils should be low in nutrients, especially nitrates and phosphates. Plants are not very hardy outdoors in Britain and usually require cool greenhouse treatment.
Propagation: Scarify the seed and sow in a greenhouse as soon as it is ripe in autumn. Keep the seed tray in a sunny position through the following summer; germination should occur the following autumn, with around 46% germination expected. Prick seedlings out into individual pots within 1–2 days of emergence, as the roots are very brittle and plants are easily lost. Grow on in the greenhouse for at least the first two winters, then plant out into permanent positions in early summer. Provide protection from winter cold for at least the first winter outdoors.
Medicinal Uses
None known
Other Uses
None known
Wikipedia
Source ↗Persoonia rigida, commonly known as the rigid-, hairy- or stiff geebung, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect to low-lying shrub with hairy young branchlets, lance-shaped to spatula-shaped leaves that are hairy when young, and yellow flowers borne in groups of up to twenty on a rachis up to 90 mm (3.5 in) long that continues to grow after flowering.
Notes
There are about 90 Persoonia species. They grow in Australia. Many have fruit which are edible.
References (1)
- Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
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