 The common name "honey flower" is derived from the flowers which produce a clear nectar in large quantities. This was a source of nourishment for Aborigines and, following European colonisation, explorers, escaped convicts and children were recorded sucking the flowers. Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt wrote that "often when I 've been tired and thirsty, I've bitten off the base of a tuft of Lambertia formosa flowers to suck the delightfully sweet honey out of them". Headaches and nausea have been reported from ingesting large quantities of the fluid, though it is not known to contain a toxic substance.
