The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Exocarpos cupressiformis
Also called Cypress Cherry, Native Cherry, Forest Cherry, Wild Cherry
Exocarpos cupressiformis is a tree belonging to the plant family Santalaceae. Its common names include native cherry, cherry ballart, and cypress cherry. It is a species endemic to Australia. Occasionally, the genus is spelled as "Exocarpus". Exocarpic acid, a rare fatty acid, is named after the tree.
Birds feed on the "cherries". They are attracted to the colourful pedicel to which the nut is attached. The digestive juices of the bird weaken the hard nut, allowing the internal seed to germinate more easily. Propagation of the species has proved to be difficult.
E. cupressiformis is found in eastern Australia, in sclerophyll forests, especially in shallow soils, and on granite outcrops. Its habitat range is extensive: from Queensland to Victoria, from the coast to the leeward fringe of the Great Dividing Range, and Tasmania. In more southerly parts of South Australia, plants are found in a number of isolated pockets of forest, including in a band from the Mount Lofty Ranges, down the Fleurieu Peninsula, to Kangaroo Island, in the southern parts of the Yorke Peninsula and the Eyre Peninsula, and in the Mount Remarkable National Park area.
Indigenous Australians used the wood of the plant to make spearthrowers and bull roarers.
Leafless Ballart · Exocarpos bidwillii · Hulumoa · Exocarpos homalocladus · Exocarpos humifusus · Broad leaved cherry · Exocarpos longifolius · Leafy ballart · Menzies' ballart · Broom Ballart · Pale Fruit Ballart · Coast Ballart
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Exocarpos cupressiformis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
