BUMBLE TREE
Capparis mitchellii
Plant Family
Capparaceae
Alternative Common Names
wild orange, bimbil, bumbil, native pomegranate, native orange, mondo, karn-doo-thal, small native pomegranate
Shrub or small compact tree to 6m high, with a dense and often broad crown, the bark on the trunk dark in colour and quite rough. Spindly with hooked prickles when young. Slow growing.
Leaves - dull green 2-6cm long, leathery.
Flowers - large with 4 white or creamy petals 2cm or more long and numerous long prominent stamens.
Fruit - large rough globular berry about 5cm diameter. Seeds embedded in pulp enclosed in the thick skin, which hardens on ripening.
Flowering mostly late spring â summer.
Indigenous uses - fruit is high in vitamin C and edible, scientific research shows it to have vitamin C up to ten times higher than oranges. Sometimes referred to as a âwomansâ tree and used to cure female ailments. Leaves boiled in water and used to treat venereal disease.
Habitat
Often in woodlands on sandy to clay loam soils, less common on rocky hillsides. Occurs most frequently in communities dominated by bimble box and white cypress pine.
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