Hairy Alectryon / Hairy Bird’s Eye
CAUTION
DO NOT eat crushed seeds – they contain cyanide.
Origin of name
Family: SAPINDACEAE
- Alectryon meaning “rooster“
- tomentosus meaning “covered in dense woolly hairs“
Occurrence
A local plant of monsoon and dry rainforest, vine thicket and forest along creek banks. Dry rainforest pioneer.
Very hardy. Tolerates some shade, drought and poor soils. Can grow quickly in fertile, moist soils and full sun.
Appearance
Medium, bushy tree 8-12m. Leaves/young shoots hairy. Clusters of small, cream-pink flowers (Jul-Sep) lead to brown, hairy, 3-lobed fruit with black seeds in a red pulp.
Seed pulp is edible & eaten by birds. Host to soapberry bugs (Leptocoris spp.) and larval food plant of ~6 species of “blue” butterfly. One of the few rainforest trees to fruit heavily in winter. A good specimen tree.
