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Kurrajong [common name]
Botanical name: Brachychiton diversifolius.
Call it: Darlab in Yawuru,
Korrkorr in Bardi,
Kawoorrkawoorr in Nyul Nyul,
Not indentified in Nyangumarta,
Tarlap in Karajarri.
This tree has large leaves and bears seeds surrounded with fine hair in a large pod. When the seedpods dry and split open they reveal bright yellow seeds. These are edible and similar to roasted peanuts or cashews. However, the hairs surrounding the seeds have to be rubbed off before eating or they will cause severe itchiness in the throat. The seeds can be roasted in hot ashes.
You can find this plant right in Broome, outside the Commonwealth Bank, and on either side of Point road on the way to the lighthouse. Tiny flowers can be seen on the trees from May-July and the seedpods are borne in summer [August-November]. The pods can be picked with green or later when they have dried or blackened.
Even the roots of the young Kurrajong are edible. Narrk is the name given to this mayi by the Nyul Nyul people. The young root is found about a foot deep and is usually less than a foot long. It is best dug up during the Wet [January-March] and baked in hot ashes. Prepared like this, the young roots taste like potato.
STERCULIACEAE
Northern Kurrajong is a semi-deciduous tree to 4m; bark grey, vertically fissured and tessellated; petioles yellowish, up to 10cm long; leaves shiny green above, paler below, midvein yellow, prominent, base very shortly attenuate to cordate, margin entire to sinuate or undulate, apex acuminate to caudate; inflorescence an axillary panicle with up to 60 flowers; calyx petal -like, joined and more or less deeply lobed, green to yellow, with purplish maroon striations, partcularly noticeable on the reflexed lobes, very densely stellate-hairy outside, glabrous inside; follicle ellipsoid or ovoid, glabrous outside; seeds yellow or cream, 10-22per follicle.
Common in pindan around Broome and throughout the Peninsula. Also occurs in NT and Qld.
Bardi name = gorrgorr; Nyul Nyul = kawoorrkawoorr; Yawuru name = darlab. Edible seed winnowed to remove irritant hairs and cooked on ashes.
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