Flowers, fruit and …. thorns?

There’s one local plant that I find myself recommending more than any other for local gardens, and it’s doing its thing right now along the escarpment. The Orange Thorn (or Pittosporum multiflorum) is a dense rounded shrub with small round leaves, small creamy flowers and small, bright orange fruit. Due to some quirks in the species’ reproductive habits many plants are currently covered in flowers, while some are bearing fruit, and a few have both at the same time.

It is one of the few shrubs you can see growing in the damp, shady rainforest understorey, but it also copes well in more or less full sun. This particular shrub is (or was until recently) growing on the Princes Highway in Fairy Meadow.

And no, the name does not lie, the Orange Thorn is somewhat thorny. But that makes it a great plant for sheltering birds like Wrens, Thornbills and Spinebills that might otherwise get chased away by larger and more aggressive birds like the Noisy Miners. It’s also excellent for attracting many different species of insect, from flies to bees and butterflies, which pollinate the flowers. You can keep it trimmed or hedged if you want to, and it’s even worth trying as an indoor plant, though it won’t produce fruit inside (unless your house is full of insect pollinators!).

Many sources say that the fruit are edible, and while this is technically true, I’ve not yet tasted one that I positively enjoyed eating. It’s probably best to leave them for the birds.