Magic Tree

Toondah Harbour has its own magic tree, hidden between harbour car park and G. J. Walter Park it is all but invisible to those coming and going, but for tree climbers and young at heart.

“Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the family Moraceae that is a native of most of the eastern coast of Australia, The fruits are small, round and greenish, ripening and turning purple at any time of year. The fruit is known as a syconium, an inverted inflorescence with the flowers lining an internal cavity. Like all figs, it has an obligate mutualism with fig wasps; figs are only pollinated by fig wasps. Coincidentally, cinema goers will recognize the Moreton Bay Fig from the celebrated Australian movie, ‘The Tree’ shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

Next, the inner bark or roots were used to make a sturdy cloth and cord for bags as well as woven fishing nets. Also the branches as well as the bark were used to make waterproof dug-out canoes. Lastly, the milky sap, which exudes when the tree is cut was prepared as a medicine to treat infections and to dress small wounds. Paradoxically, it is found to be an irritant if it comes in direct contact with the skin.

Moreton Bay Fig Trees are native to Eastern Australia. They can reach a height of 40 m (approx. 130 ft) and have large buttress roots, sometimes as tall as a man”

Retrieved from https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/the-moreton-bay-fig-tree/ August 29 2017