aboriginal use of plants and fungi
by penny
fungi and
plants
Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood)
- Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood): Found in NSW,QLD,SA,TAS and VIC. The hard wood was used to make spear-throwers, boomerangs, clubs and shields. The bark was soaked in water and used to bathe painful joints, and the inner bark was used to make string.
Araucaria bidwillii (Bunya Pine)
Found in QLD. Inside each scale of the cones of this tree was a hard nut which was either boiled or roasted and was considered delicious by Indigenous people.
Banksia spp (banksia)
Found in all Australian states. The flower-cones were soaked to extract the nectar to sweeten drinks. Some banksia flowers were dried and used as strainers for drinking water.
Casuarina and Allocasuarina spp (she-oaks)
Found in all Australian states. The hard wood of she-oaks was used to make boomerangs, shields and clubs. The young shoots provided moisture when chewed on and young cones could be eaten.
Dodonaea viscose (Hop-bush)
Found in all Australian states. The juice of the root was used for toothache and cuts. The chewed leaf and juice was put on stonefish and stingray stings and then wrapped up for several days.
Cyttaria gunnii
In Australia this fungi grows only on Nothofagus trees in Tasmania and Southern Victoria. The fruiting bodies are yellow/orange colour and look a little like golfballs. These fruiting bodies were eaten and said to contain a fluid that was "pleasant tasting" ( this was from a written account in 1833 by a European, George Robinson.
Podaxis pistillaris
This powdery-spored desert fungus was used in many tribes to darken white hair in old men and for body painting. It was possibly also used as a fly repellent.
Laccocephalum mylittae
This fungus is commonly called Native Bread and is found underground. It was either eaten raw or toasted and said to have the flavour of boiled rice.
Phellinus sp
An often hard, woody fungi used as medicine. When burned, the smoke was inhaled to soothe sore throats. Scrapings from slightly charred fungi were drunk with water to treat coughing, sore throats, "bad chests'', fevers and diarrhoea but it's not certain which particular species were used .
Pycnoporus sp
A reddish/orange coloured fungi which was used as a medicine in several ways. It was rubbed on sore lips, put inside babies mouths when they had oral thrush and "sucked on to cure sore mouths". Antibiotic compounds were found in one species.