''Planchonia careya'' is a tree species in the family

Lecythidaceae The Lecythidaceae comprise a family (biology), family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. The most important member of the family in wor ...

. Common names include cocky apple, cockatoo apple and billygoat plum. The species should not be confused with ''

Terminalia ferdinandiana ''Terminalia ferdinandiana'', most commonly known as the Kakadu plum and also called the gubinge, billygoat plum, green plum, salty plum, murunga, mador and other names, is a flowering plant in the family Combretaceae, native to Australia, wid ...

'', with which it shares some common names. The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia’ records that Indigenous Australians of the Mitchell River area referred to this plant as "Ootcho" while those of the Cloncurry River area referred to it as "Go-onje" and "Gunthamarrah".

Uses

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 ...

consumed the raw ripe fruit of this species. The taste is stated to be similar to

quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...

. Indigenous Australians pulverized the inner bark of this species and added it to small water bodies to act as a

fish toxin Fish toxins or fish stupefying plants have historically been used by many hunter gatherer cultures to stun fish, so they become easy to collect by hand. Some of these toxins paralyse fish, which can then be easily collected. The process of documen ...

, allowing fish to be easily collected from the surface of the water. This is known to have been a practice used by Indigenous Australians at

Cleveland Bay The Cleveland Bay is a breed of horse that originated in England during the 17th century, named after its colouring and the Cleveland district of Yorkshire. It is a well-muscled horse, with legs that are strong but short in relation ...

. The roots of the species were also used as a fish toxin by Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians boiled the inner bark of this species in water and the resulting liquid was used as an antiseptic wash for open cuts and sores. Indigenous Australians placed the heated leaves of this species over

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

and

sandfly Sandfly (or sand fly) is a colloquial name for any species or genus of flying, biting, blood-sucking dipteran (fly) encountered in sandy areas. In the United States, ''sandfly'' may refer to certain horse flies that are also known as "greenhea ...

bites to relieve irritation. Indigenous Australians used the flowers of this species as decorations.

References

careya ''Careya'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lecythidaceae. It is native to the Indian Subcontinent, Afghanistan, Indochina, and Peninsular Malaysia. Taxonomy It was first described as a genus by William Roxburgh in volume 3 part 1 of ...

Ericales of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Eudicots of Western Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller {{Australia-asterid-stub