Eupomatia laurina

Eupomatia laurina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Magnoliales Family: Eupomatiaceae Genus: Eupomatia Species: E. laurina
Binomial name
Eupomatia laurina R. Br.

Eupomatia laurina, known as Bolwarra or sometimes Native guava, is a shrub to small tree (3-5m in height) native to eastern Australia and New Guinea. It is a primitive flowering plant, usually growing as an understorey in rainforest or wet sclerophyll forest.

Leaves are glossy, oblong-elliptic, from 7-12 cm long. The globose to urn-shaped edible yellow-green fruit is 15-20mm in diameter and bears from the branches and trunk.

The sweet, aromatic fruit is used as a spice-fruit in cooking, being included in beverages, jams and desserts. It is best used in combination with other ingredients that compliment its strong flavor, and hence should be considered one of the Australian spices.

In cultivation E. laurina is frost sensitive and prefers a protected, semi-shaded site. It can be propagated from seed or cuttings. Cutting propagated trees produce fruit after two years. Seedlings take four to six years to fruit.

There is also two other related species endemic to Australia, E. bennettii, or small bolwarra and E. barbata, or northern small bolwarra.

References

• Cherikoff, Vic, The Bushfood Handbook, ISBN 0-7316-6904-5.
• Low, Tim, Wild Food Plants of Australia, ISBN 0207143838
• Jessup, Laurie, "A new species of Eupomatia R. Br. (Eupomatiaceae) from Queensland." Austrobaileya (2002) 6:333–335.

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