The mulga apple is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...

food, often eaten by the

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

The mulga apple is in fact a combination of plant and animal; the insect

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

grows inside the wood of the mulga tree ''(

Acacia aneura ''Acacia aneura'', commonly known as mulga or true mulga, is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback areas of Australia. It is the dominant tree in the habitat to which it gives its name ( mulga) that occurs across much of inland Australia. ...

''). Without the wasp the gall would not be induced. Mulga apple is known as ''Merne ataltyakwerle'' in the

Arrernte language Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are A ...

of Central Australia. Mulga trees grow in flat country and at the foot of hills. It grows on the end of the mulga branches. Aborigines eat them raw or cook them in hot earth. The wasp larvae is also eaten. The taste is said to be sweet and like apples.

References

Bushfood Australian Aboriginal bushcraft Insects as food Galls {{IndigenousAustralia-stub

See also

References