bottletree

The bottle tree has one of the most visually interesting shapes. It's botanically known as Brachychiton rupestris, it's a member of the Malvaceae family and is also commonly known as the Queensland bottle tree, or narrow leaf bottle tree. The common name derives from the tree's shape, which becomes bottle-like as it ages at between five and eight years of age. Some people believe the tree is hollow but the swelling is due to the water held in its trunk. The bottle tree is semi-deciduous and reaches 18 to 20 meters. But if grown in cooler regions it's usually smaller. The leaves are about a hundred millimeters long and these drop from the tree before flowering. The bell-shaped, or campanulate, yellowish flowers usually form between October and December in clusters at the end of the branches. Source: www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/bottle-trees/9428532

What looks like a bottle, stores up liquid and has an edible inner bark? The Queensland bottle tree. Shaped like a sturdy wine bottle, these trees are often left standing when undergrowth is cleared away for farming. While not a perfect source, Bottle trees have long been considered an emergency source of sustenance. Bottle trees are often left in fields where cattle are being grown. The leaves can serve as an emergency fodder. In times of extreme drought, farmers have even felled whole trees for cattle. When the outer bark is peeled back, it exposes a soft, edible inner bark. Unfortunately, the pulp is a good source of energy but doesn’t provide much in the way of protein. Some cattle fed on it have developed Nitrate poisoning. The native people who lived in Australia before the Europeans sometimes ate the roots of the young plants or scored the sides of the trees and ate the secretions from them. They used the fiber to make nets. Source: www.designertrees.com.au/queensland-bottle-tree-drink-foo...

Coalstoun Lakes National Park Rising 200m above a broad cultivated valley, Mt Le Brun contains two large craters which occasionally fill with shallow lakes. The crater lakes are protected in Coalstoun Lakes National Park. Formed more than 600,000 years ago, the mountain is one of the youngest volcanic formations in Australia. Melaleucas and blue gums fringe the lakes which are sometimes completely dry and covered in sedgelands. The vine scrub covering the crater sides is one of the few dry rainforest remnants in this area. Bottle trees, crows ash, leopard ash, and other trees tower over the dense vine scrub The lakes were named after Coalstoun in Scotland by Wade Brun, manager of nearby Ban Ban Station. Source: driveinland.com.au/biggenden/