page_title: Elaeocarpus angustifolius
section_title: Description and Distribution [Habitat]
hierarchical_section_title: Elaeocarpus angustifolius / Description and Distribution [Habitat]
caption_attribution_description: Elaeocarpus angustifolius (Blue-marble tree) Leaves and fruit at Keanae Arboretum, Maui, Hawaii. August 07, 2003 &gt;#030807-0059 Image Use Policy Also known as Elaeocarpus grandis
context_page_description: Elaeocarpus angustifolius is a large and fast growing rainforest tree, native to Australia, in the Elaeocarpaceae family. It is commonly known as Blue Quandong, Blue Marble Tree, Bracelet Tree or Blue Fig, although it is not closely related to the genus of figs.
  This tree is grown for the ornamental flowers, foliage, and edible but tangy and bitter fruits.
  Other special uses of this evergreen perennial plant include erosion control, and as a food resource for butterflies, insects, and fruit-eating birds.
context_section_description: 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.
  It is a large tree that can grow up to 50 metres tall, usually with an elaborate buttressed trunk and roots. 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. Trees usually mature (i.e. start flowering and fruiting) in their seventh year.
  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. 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.
  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.
caption: Elaeocarpus angustifolius leaves and fruit on the ground in Keanae Arboretum, Maui
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