Bushbernie's Garden
Cocky Apple
Species: Planchonia careya.
A small, deciduous, somewhat crooked woodland tree that is distributed across northern Australia.
It grows to approximately 6m with a pale, corky, fissured bark and an open canopy of broad leaves.
The leaves turn to autumn colours during the dry season, making the trees conspicuous in the understorey.
Flowers are large, fleshy and white with numerous pink and white stamens 5-6cm long. They open in the evening and fall by next morning.
Flowering period is from July to October.
The fruit is green, egg-shaped, smooth, fibrous inside, and grows to 9cm x 4cm.
Fruit is eaten by the red tailed black and palm cockatoos and larvae of the yellow peach moth (Conogethes punctiferalis).
Nectar is eaten by rainbow and varied lorikeets, silver crowned and little friarbirds, blue faced, black chinned, white gaped, white throated, brown, dusky and red headed honeyeaters and yellow throated miner.
Larval food plant for the ornate dusk flat, amethyst jewel, copper jewel, fiery jewel and black spotted flash butterflies and of the moths Theretra oldenlandiae (vine hawk moth) and Opodiphthera saccopoea (an emperor moth). It is a favourite tree of the green whizzer cicada (Macrotristria intersecta).
