Glochidion ferdinandi, commonly known as the cheese tree, is a species of tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 in the Phyllanthaceae

Phyllanthaceae

Phyllanthaceae is a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae. The Phyllanthaceae are most numerous in the tropics, with many in the south temperate zone, and a few ranging as far north as the middle of the north temperate...

 family. It is native to eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where it grows in rainforests and wetter sclerophyll

Sclerophyll

Sclerophyll is the term for a type of vegetation that has hard leaves and short internodes . The word comes from the Greek sclero and phyllon ....

 forests. Frugivorous birds such as pigeons, figbirds and parrots consume its fruit.

Description

It grows as a woody shrub or small tree to 8 metres (26.2 ft), although occasionally reaching 30 metres (98.4 ft), with flaky brownish-grey bark. It has simple alternate-arranged elliptical leaves 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 ) in length and 1.5-4 cm wide; the species may be partly deciduous in winter. Flowering may occur at any time of year; the cheese tree has both single female and male flowers, which are found in groups of three. Both sexes are green-yellow, with the male flowers about 0.7 cm and the female 0.5 cm in diameter. The most notable feature are the small pumpkin-shaped fruit, which are green at first before turning shades of white and pink. Divided into segments radially, they eventually split open to reveal bright red 0.5 cm seeds from November to April.

Taxonomy and naming

The cheese tree gains its common name for its cheese-shaped fruit. Other common names include water gum, button wood, pencil cedar, and jow-war. The cheese tree was originally described by Swiss botanist Johannes Müller Argoviensis

Johannes Müller Argoviensis

Johannes Müller Argoviensis was the name used by the Swiss botanist Johann Müller . He was the monographer of Resedaceae, Apocynaceae and Euphorbiaceae in A. P. de Candolle's Prodromus and Martius's Flora Brasiliensis. He was also an authority on lichens.-References:...

 in 1865 as Phyllanthus

Phyllanthus

Phyllanthus is the largest genus in the flowering plant family Phyllanthaceae. Estimates of the number species in this genus vary widely, from 750 to 1200. Phyllanthus has a remarkable diversity of growth forms including annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, climbers, floating aquatics, and...

 ferdinandi before being given its current binomial name by Frederick Manson Bailey

Frederick Manson Bailey

Frederick Manson Bailey CMG was a botanist active in Australia, who made valuable contributions to the characterisation of the flora of Queensland.-Early life:...

 in 1902. Its specific epithet honours Victorian State Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

.

An uncommon variety, pubens, known as the hairy cheese tree, is smaller, with leaves and fruit finely hairy.

Distribution and habitat

The cheese tree grows in both clay and sandy soils, and is found in rainforest and wetter areas in sclerophyll forest, where it may be associated with such species as Bangalay (Eucalyptus botryoides

Eucalyptus botryoides

Eucalyptus botryoides, Bangalay or Southern Mahogany, is a small to tall tree. The height may be up to 40 metres. Rough bark covers the trunk and larger branches, is thick, fibrous, and grey-brown to red-brown....

), Woollybutt (E. longifolia

Eucalyptus longifolia

Eucalyptus longifolia, known by the common name woollybutt, is a tree of the myrtle family myrtaceae native to eastern Australia. It has thick, fibrous bark usually colored light gray and white, and long narrow grey-green leaves. The drooping flowerheads in groups of three are a distinguishing...

), Forest Red Gum (E. tereticornis

Eucalyptus tereticornis

Eucalyptus tereticornis is a species of tree native to eastern Australia.It has a great many common names, of which Forest Red Gum is perhaps the most widely known...

) Thin-leaved Stringybark (E. eugenioides

Eucalyptus eugenioides

Eucalyptus eugenioides, known as the thin-leaved stringybark, is a common eucalyptus tree in eastern Australia. It grows up to 30 metres tall in grassy forest or dry eucalyptus woodland on deep heavy soils of moderate fertility.-Taxonomy:...

) and swamp she-oak (Casuarina glauca

Casuarina glauca

Casuarina glauca, commonly known as the swamp she-oak, is a species of Casuarina native to the east coast of Australia. It is found from central Queensland south to southern New South Wales. It has become naturalised in the Everglades in Florida where it is considered a weed.The larvae of the...

). The hairy cheese tree grows with magenta lilly pilly (Syzygium paniculatum), broad-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia

Melaleuca quinquenervia

Melaleuca quinquenervia, commonly known as Niaouli or Broad-leaved paperbark or the Paper Bark Tea Tree, is a small- to medium-sized tree of the allspice family, Myrtaceae. The plant is native to New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and coastal Eastern Australia, from Botany Bay in New South Wales...

), and Rhodomyrtus

Rhodomyrtus

Rhodomyrtus is a genus of 24 species of shrubs and trees in the family Myrtaceae. The genus is native to Asia, Malesia, Melanesia, and Australia. Its greatest levels of diversity are on New Guinea and in northeastern Australia. DNA sequence data and morphological data indicate that the genus is...

species.

It is found from central Queensland to the vicinity of Ulladulla

Ulladulla, New South Wales

Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway, about half way between the larger towns of Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north and approximately 179 km south of Sydney...

 (35° S) in southern New South Wales.

Ecology

The fruits are eaten by several bird species, including the Australasian Figbird

Australasian Figbird

The Australasian Figbird is a conspicuous medium-sized passerine bird native to a wide range of wooded habitats in northern and eastern Australia, southern Papua New Guinea, and the Kai Islands in Indonesia. It was formerly considered a subspecies of S...

 (Sphecotheres vieilloti), Lewin's Honeyeater

Lewin's Honeyeater

The Lewin's Honeyeater, Meliphaga lewinii, is a bird that inhabits the ranges along the east coast of Australia. It has a semicircular ear patch, pale yellow in colour.The name of this bird commemorates the Australian artist John Lewin....

, (Meliphaga lewinii), Olive-backed Oriole

Olive-backed Oriole

The Olive-backed Oriole is a very common medium-sized passerine bird native to northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. The most wide-ranging of the Australasian orioles, it is noisy and conspicuous. Not bright in colour, it is olive-backed with small dark streaks, with a light chest having...

 (Oriolus sagittatus),
White-headed Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

The White-headed Pigeon is a pigeon native to the east coast of Australia, belonging to the same genus as the domestic pigeon C. livia....

 (Columba leucomela), Topknot Pigeon

Topknot Pigeon

The Topknot Pigeon is a pigeon native to Australia. It is also known by the name of "Flock Pigeon".-Description:...

 (Lopholaimus antarcticus), Brown Cuckoo-dove

Brown Cuckoo-dove

The Slender-billed Cuckoo-Dove, or Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Macropygia amboinensis, is a dove in the genus Macropygia. In Australia, it is sometimes called "Brown Pigeon" or "Pheasant Pigeon", but both are best avoided, as they can lead to confusion with the brown doves and the true Pheasant Pigeon...

 (Macropygia phasianella), Australian King Parrot

Australian King Parrot

The Australian King Parrot is endemic to eastern Australia. It is found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion of the continent, including eucalyptus wooded areas in and directly adjacent to subtropical and temperate rainforest...

 (Alisterus scapularis) The Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong

The Pied Currawong is a medium-sized black passerine bird native to eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island. One of three currawong species in the genus Strepera, it is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian Magpie of the family Artamidae. Six subspecies are recognised...

 (Strepera graculina) also eats the fruit but regurgitates them, while new leafy growth is eaten by the Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet

The Rainbow Lorikeet, is a species of Australasian parrot found in Australia, eastern Indonesia , Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In Australia, it is common along the eastern seaboard, from Queensland to South Australia and northwest Tasmania...

 (Trichoglossus haematodus). It also serves as food for the larvae of the Shining Pencil-blue (Candalides hellenita), and the Shining- or Common Oak-blue (Arhopala micale

Arhopala micale

The Common Oakblue or Shining Oakblue is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. The species comprises about 16 subspecies, which are found in Melanesia and New Guinea as well as the north coast of Australia ....

).

The ladybird Scymnodes lividigaster feeds on the aphid Aphis eugeniae, which feeds on the cheese tree.

Glochidion ferdinandi is a long-lived species which may live for 60 years or more. It may sucker or resprout after bushfire. Seeds take 1–4 months to germinate.

Cultivation

It is an easily grown pioneer species useful in bush regeneration

Bush regeneration

Bush regeneration, a form of natural area restoration is the term used in Australia for the ecological restoration of remnant vegetation areas, such as through the minimisation of negative disturbances, both exogenous such as exotic weeds and endogenous such as erosion...

 and natural landscaping

Natural landscaping

.Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are indigenous to the geographic area of the garden.-Maintenance:...

of areas to which it is native in eastern Australia. The species may colonise disturbed areas, and is a fast growing plant. Plants require ample water but adapt to a wide range of soils and sun or shade. It can be grown as an indoor plant in a bright position.