Elaeocarpus angustifolius

Elaeocarpus angustifolius can be found in the subtropical rainforest regions of the eastern Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales. Its range extends to New Caledonia, the Northern Territory and New Guinea.[4]

It is a large tree that can grow up to 50 metres tall, usually with an elaborate buttressed trunk and roots.[5] The altitudinal range is from near sea level to 1100 metres.

In Australia, the tree tends to produce small greenish-white bell-shaped flowers between March and June, with the easily recognisable blue fruits forming in September to November. The flowers are composed of five feathery fringed petals and appear to droop.[6] Trees usually mature (i.e. start flowering and fruiting) in their seventh year.[7]

Blue Quandong fruits are typically spherical, between two and three cm in diameter, with skin a shiny brilliant blue and slightly wrinkled on the surface. The flesh is thin and pale green, surrounding a bumpy-textured hard rough woody "stone" (or endocarp) that has deep convolutions in its surface and contains up to five seeds.[2][7][5] The fruits are attractive to birds and mammals, and are eaten whole by Australian brushturkey, cassowaries, woompoo pigeon and spectacled flying foxes. The seeds are passed undamaged and dispersed after digestion of the fruit.[2][7][5]

Elaeocarpus angustifolius leaves and fruit on the ground in Keanae Arboretum, Maui

The leaves are produced in clusters, and are finely-toothed, glossy, dark green, oblong-elliptical shaped and resemble the leaves of the Mango tree. 10-18 cm long, with the underside hairy and paler than the upper surface. Older leaves turn bright red to scarlet before falling.

The name angustifolius was assigned in 1827 by Carl Ludwig Blume, publishing in Bijdragen tot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie No. 7: 120.[4]

The junior synonym Elaeocarpus grandis, from the 1861 description of the species by Ferdinand von Mueller, is still frequently used.[5]

Elaeocarpus angustifolius has many common names, including Blue Quandong, White Quandong, Silver Quandong, Brush Quandong, Brisbane Quandong, Blueberry Ash, Indian Oil Fruit, Blue Fig, Genitri, Coolan, Cooloon and Caloon.[4]

"Elaeocarpus angustifolius [=grandis] (sapatua, siapoatua, siapatua, blue fig, blue marble tree, blue quandong), a native of Australia, is a forestry tree that is invading intact and secondary forests in Samoa." In other words this tree is an invasive species in Samoa.[11]

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  Close up image of fruit on its branch
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  Flowers and foliage
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  In spring, in Australia
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  Closeup of fruit and leaves, in Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden
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  Seeds
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  Leaves in Keʻanae Arboretum, Maui
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  Tree branch