Billy Goat Plum
Terminalia ferdinandiana

Family: Combretaceae

What it is like

Native to Australia, Billy Goat Plum or Terminalia ferdinandiana is a small to mediumsized deciduous, flowering tree, about 10-14 m high, with a spreading and rounded crown. Its bark is creamy gray and rough. The leaves, large, smooth, leathery, oval to round, occur in spirals near the ends of small branches. Flowers are cream, small, fragrant, and in spikes in the leaf axils towards terminal part of the branches. The almond-shaped fruit, soft and yellow green, has high ascorbic acid or vitamin C content. It is pounded and used as an antiseptic. It can be eaten raw, cooked, or made into preserved or jams. The seeds are edible. The inner bark of the tree is used as treatment for skin conditions and infections like wounds, sores, and boils. T. ferdinandiana is tolerant to drought but frost sensitive. It can be grown from fresh seeds.

Terminalia ferdinandiana is a deciduous Tree growing to 10 m (32ft) by 10 m (32ft) at a medium rate. See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 9 and is not frost tender. Suitable for: light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil.

Height (m): 10

Where it is found

Sandplains behind beaches, dry creek beds, flood plains, cliff tops, ridges, coastal vine thickets, mangrove edges in Western Australia.

Australia - Northern Australia, Queensland, Western Australia.

Conservation Status: This taxon has not yet been assessed

Countries/locations it is found in

Australia

How it is used

Food

Rating: 4

Fruit - raw or cooked. Eaten fresh, it can have a drying effect in the mouth. Used in making preserves, jams etc. About 3cm long, it has a slightly bitter-tasting flesh. The fruit looks and tastes like a gooseberry. It is one of the world's richest natural sources of ascorbic acid with some forms containing up to 3,150mg of ascorbic acid per 100g of fruit. When ripe, the fruit is soft and has a yellow-green colour - to harvest you merely shake the trunk of the tree and the ripe fruits fall to the ground.

Medicine

Rating: 2

The pounded fruit is used as an antiseptic and as a soothing balm for aching limbs..

Antiseptic: Preventing sepsis, decay or putrefaction, it destroys or arrests the growth of micro-organisms.

Vitamin C: Plants good for their vitamin C content

Other

Rating: 0

Other Uses: None known

How it is grown

Succeeds in any moderately fertile, well-drained soil in a sunny position. Found in the wild on red sands, sandy clay, black peat, sandstone, ironstone and granite soils. The fruit of this species could contain the highest concentration of vitamin C to be found in any fruit in the world. It is being researched for its commercial potential.

Propagating it: Seed -

Best place to grow:

Habit: Tree

Hardiness: 9-12

Growth: Medium

Soil: Light (sandy), medium

Shade: No shade

Moisture: Moist

Things to keep in mind

Its other names

Local names

Wild plum, Gubinge, Murunga, Manmohpan, Gobin, Mador, Nanka-bakarra,

Synonyms

Myrobalanus edulis Kuntze Terminalia edulis F.Muell. Terminalia latipes psilocarpa Pedley