Green plum

What it is

Buchanania obovata bears fruit just 1–1.7 cm (0.4–0.7 in) long, with a single seed inside. As the fruit ripens, its green skin becomes yellower and more see-through, and the flesh softens. Fruit left to dry becomes yellowish and wrinkled, much as a sultana dries, and is still eaten.

Where it comes from

Green plum is native to the far north of Australia, in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It grows around Gove and Mata Mata in East Arnhem Land, and around Darwin and Deleye farther west. Aboriginal people living in these remote areas harvest both the flesh and seed for food.

How it's eaten where it grows

In the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Aboriginal people eat green plums straight from the tree, dried, or softened again with water. In traditional preparation, the fruit and seed are pounded together into a paste, dried in the sun and wrapped in sheets of paperbark, so the harvest keeps to be eaten later.

Among Ngarinyman people, the crushed fruit-and-seed paste was counted good food for small children and old people.

How it's grown

The plant is a tree or shrub that sheds its leaves, with rough grey or black bark. It grows among eucalypts in woodland, in scrub on sandstone and in open forest on the lowlands. Small cream-white flowers usually appear between July and November, before the summer fruit.

When and where you'll find it

Northern Australia’s first wet-season rains mark the usual start of ripe green plums, often in late November or early December. This is a wild-harvested fruit of the hot, humid tropical summer. Its food tradition centres on the places where it grows, with fresh fruit eaten locally and dried fruit kept for later.