Bush coconut

The Bush coconut, is an Australian bush tucker food, often eaten by Aborigines of Central Australia.

The bush coconut is in fact a combination of plant and animal; the Cysticoccus pomiformis (insect in gall) grows inside the wood of the Corymbia terminalis tree.

Bush coconut is called Merne arrkirlpangkwerle in the Arrernte language of Central Australia.

It looks like a small, knobbly woody fruit, ranging in size from a golf ball to a tennis ball, with a milky white flesh inside (the larva of the insect).

Aborigines pick them and crack them open with a rock. The Arrernte call the insect angure.

See also

• Eucalyptus opaca
• Gall
• Mulga apple