Dinosaur diner



This is what the forests around my area look like..............gum trees (Ironbark or Spotted gums mostly) are the canopy and the forest floors are covered with these huge Burrawang Palms (Macrozamia communis) which are a member of the Cycad family............that's right, the plants that the dinosaurs ate! These photos were taken about 1 km from my front door last weekend with the sun shining in through the trees, spectacular. The female palm produces large upright cones that look like pineapples, they eventually open and drop highly toxic red/orange seeds.


Many thanks to a sick girlfriend who has just photographed these Burrawang seed pods outside her back door in her PJ's just so you can see how unusual they really are. Very attractive to birds I presume but deadly for humans and livestock, so you have been warned.

5 comments:

Levin said...

looks like an amazing spot.
we have these plants in our botanical gardens - the seed pods (?) look fantastic.
i also love your night shirt. i would really like to make some pants in a groovy fabric as seen in amy butler's book. they would be perfect for lounging around in on a cold sunday!
have a great weekend.
l
x

Anonymous said...

Wow! They DO look like pineapple.

We have a Pindo palm in our backyard. It produces tons of little fruits. If you are so inclined you can eat them. They taste pretty good.

The trick is, you have to dig way into the fronds to reach the fruits and the fronds are very sharp and scratchy.

I tried last year to get some, but decided it wasn't worth all the work.

The palm, however, is lovely.

After the hurricanes of 2004, we had some other trees trimmed and the trim guy offered me $2,000 for the Pindo. I think I paid less than $5.00 for it fifteen years ago. It has grown large and beautiful.

I didn't take him up on his offer.
Maybe I should have, but I didn't. I love that palm tree.

On the other side of the coin ... he can have the Queen palms in the front yard. They are nothing but a big pain in the wallet. They need to have their seed pods trimmed at least twice a year.
They have grown so tall we can't do it anymore. We must hire a tree specialist with a "cherry picker" to reach that high.

Leanne said...

I saw these while wondering through the botanic gardens(Adelaide) last week and wondered what they were now I know.

Rachel said...

Very cool! I love seeing plants and landscapes so different from the ones where I live. Thanks for posting these!

Mandi said...

Wonderful photos thanks so much for sharing them...looks divine...cheers ../