Native Apricot
Scattered Capsules in a tree
Native Apricot
Capsule, Starting to Open
| Native Apricot Scattered Capsules in a tree | | Native Apricot Capsule, Starting to Open | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Carrots (Apiales) | ||||
| Family: | Pittosporum (Pittosporaceae) | ||||
| Species: | Native Apricot (Pittosporum angustifolium) | ||||
| This Photo: | Capsule | ||||
| Other name: | Weeping Pittosporum | ||||
EXTRA - Photo Specific Information: You can clearly see why they call it a native Apricot from this photo General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Always had a soft spot for these. They are easy to recognise when in fruit as they are so unique and the common name represents them perfectly. A small, narrow tree, with long pale green leaves (that have a "hooked" pointed tip) and yellow/orange fruit; apricot in colour. We have found their leaves to be very similar to E. longifolia (which we have hundreds of) so identification has been difficult. The bark is pale, smooth & has small white horizontal lines on it (when younger) and is generally single trunked. E. longifolia is dark, rough, without the lines and is generally multi-trunked. We only found one fruit this year (2012), so the extensive bird life we have at Ellura must have been enjoying them! Unlike an apricot, the fruit splits on the tree to reveal multiple seeds, rather than a single stone. The tree is often found with many (apparent) seedlings around it. Darren Schmitke tells us that they can sucker for up to 200m! So the seedlings may not be seedlings at all, but part of the same plant, growing from a damaged root. These used to be called Pittosporum phylliraeoides, but the name was changed to the current one. However, it's not a synonym because there is another plant called Pittosporum phylliraeoides now (these are coastal, where as P angustifolium is generally on the interior). | |||||
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