BACK TO NATURE - FRUIT

by Jamie Walker

It is said that, in Queensland’s bush, some tree species will always have flowers or fruit, whatever the season.

Nature puts fruit at the centre of one of its shrewdest plans. All over the world, plants offer figs, berries, cherries, apples and more as delicious allurements. Some birds swallow fruits whole: others pierce them with sharp beaks and lick out the soft inner flesh with brush-like tongues.

This not only fills crops and bellies and meets energy needs but also ensures that the fruits’ internal seeds are passed through their consumers’ systems undigested, to be deposited to germinate at large across the landscape. There is even scientific evidence that passing through an animal’s gut, may begin a process that enhances a seed’s successful germination.

After a bush fire, that same plan activates as burnt areas are first colonised by plants like Kangaroo Apple – a fast growing (though relatively short-lived) species which produces abundant fruit.

The activity around a tree or bush with fruit at perfect ripeness, is exciting to watch. Birds attract more birds and there can be endless movement of Fruit Doves, Figbirds, Topknot Pigeons, Cuckoo-shrikes, Bowerbirds and others.

There is less competition and belligerent behaviour than you might notice when the attraction is nectar, and scrambling after fruit disturbs large insects. Birds naturally take advantage of this.

All this action is often tantalisingly high in the canopy - but if we are fortunate, it may be down closer to our own, more comfortable, earth-bonded level. (This can also save you from a nasty crick in the neck).

Of course, birds’ fruit selection is often indiscriminate, and both natives and exotic plant species receive equal attention. One of my best views of the beautiful Rose-crowned Fruit Dove was of one feeding on the small, black berries of Lantana: a smothering, invasive weed in our environment. I have also noticed that Brown Cuckoo Doves seem drawn to the yellow fruits of the despised “tobacco” tree.

Contemplation of these things is always enthralling. Flowers are fertilised. Fruit and seed are formed. They pass through intestines, giving sustenance on the way, and return to the soil to continue life in a new shape.

Nature’s cogs fitting softly together in perpetual, co-operative dependency. I’ve said it before, it’s immaculate.