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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Eucalypts, commonly known as gum trees, form an integral part of the Australian identity with the bush. From the children’s song Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree through to the distinctive smell of eucalypts to iconic paintings and photographs, eucalypts are an essential part of Australian culture, featuring in art, music and literature.

The sight and smell of eucalypts are a defining part of Australian life. The sight of the blue haze from the eucalytpus oil arising from the bush in the mountain ranges of Sydney gave the Blue Mountains their name.

Eucalypts come in a great range of shapes and sizes – from tall trees to small shrubs. Eucalypts are a dominant part of the Australian flora. Eucalypts range across Australia – the only landscape they are completely absent from is the high alpine areas, although they are scarce in rainforests and in the arid

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Plectronia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the Rubiaceae family, and includes only one species: Plectronia parvifolia.

It is a plant from Burma and Malaysia. The leaves of this thorny bush are largely consumed by the natives in their curries. The pulp is attached to the seeds and eaten by the natives, but for the European taste, it is not very pleasant. In India the fruit is eaten by the Indians, and the leaves are also used as food and for the curries as a seasoning.

Description source: Wikipedia

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 22449

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Araucaria cunninghamii is a species of Araucaria known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham, who collected the first specimens in the 1820s.

The species is found in the dry rainforests of New South Wales and Queensland and in New Guinea. The trees can live up to 450 years and grow to a height of 60 metres. The bark is rough, splits naturally, and peels easily.

The leaves on young trees are awl-shaped, 1-2cm long, about 2 mm thick at the base, and scale-like, incurved, 1-2 cm long and 4 mm broad on mature trees. The cones are ovoid, 8-10 cm long and 6-8 cm diameter, and take about 18 months to mature. The disintegrate at maturity to release the nut-like edible

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the southern silky oak, silk oak or silky oak, or Australian silver oak, is the largest species in the genus Grevillea of the family Proteaceae. It is not closely related to the true oaks, Quercus. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments receiving more than 1,000 mm per year of average rainfall.

It is a fast-growing evergreen tree, between 18-35 m tall, with dark green delicately dented bipinnatifid leaves reminiscent of a fern frond. It is the largest plant in the Grevillea genus, reaching trunk diameters in excess of 1 m. The leaves are generally 15-30 cm long with greyish white or rusty undersides.

Its flowers are golden-orange bottlebrush-like blooms, between 8-15 cm long, in the spring, on a 2-3 cm long stem and are used for honey production. The seeds mature in late

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundant cultivars are not found in the wild, only around human settlements in the East European and Caucasian mountains and Asia. Plum remains have been found in Neolithic age archaeological sites along with olives, grapes and figs.

The name plum derived from Old English plume or “plum, plum tree,” which extended from Germanic language or Middle Dutch, prume, and Latin, prunum.

Plums are a diverse group of species. The commercially important plum trees are medium-sized, usually pruned to 5-6 metres height. The tree is of medium hardiness. Without pruning, the trees can reach 12 metres in height and spread across 10 metres. They blossom in different months in different parts of the world; for example, in about January in Taiwan and early April in the United Kingdom.

Fruits are usually of medium

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Romance of Food: Oranges

Oranges are commercially the most important of fresh fruits, since they grow in all sub-tropical countries and can be brought without difficulty across the seas to the world’s markets.
Originally, the orange grew wild in Eastern Asia. It was cultivated at an early date in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region, establishing itself in the sunny, mild climate of Italy, Southern France, and Spain. Orange trees were taken to the West Indies, Brazil, and Florida by the Spaniards, and the Franciscan Fathers planted them in California. And they flourish in South Africa and Australia.
Orange groves with their delightful fragrance, alive with birds and bees, are a delight to the senses, and no industry could be more welcome to the country than the cultivation of the golden fruit.
Frost is the greatest enemy of the orange grower. In some districts there is a system of

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