Page 10 - Tropic Magazine Issue 33

TROPIC • UP FRONT

1. Carpentaria Palm
(Carpentaria acuminate)
2. Torres Strait Pigeon
(Ducula spilorrhoa)
3. Cape York Lily
(Curcuma australasica)

In season 2

EXPLORE 1
Tropic’s guide to the best of
Tropical North nature this SUMMER VISITORS
December and January. Fauna
I have another reason for being
Words: Nicky Horstmann particularly fond of Carpentaria Palms.
It’s holiday season! Regardless of what Yes, the fruits look spectacular to us, but
the weather throws at us, it’s a special they look even more inviting to the Torres
time – a time for celebration. Strait Pigeons (Ducula spilorrhoa).
Whether you’re working to provide Sometimes called the Pied Imperial
other people with a well-deserved Pigeon, these beautiful white and black
break or actually enjoying your own rec birds spend their summers with us.
leave, festivities and fun are the name They start arriving in August/September
of the game. However, there are always and return to PNG and other northern 3
opportunities to relax and let nature parts in March. Here, they do what most NATIVE SPICE
provide some entertainment. people do on holidays – breed and eat!
When the Carp berries are nice and ripe, Flora
one of those heavily laden inflorescences The wet season also provides the
TROPICAL TREES can be pecked clean by several of opportunity to familiarise ourselves
Flora these pigeons. Think of some of the worst with our native turmeric plant.
Palm trees abound in FNQ. Some of them shovelling-food sights that you’ve seen Naturally found in the wetter areas of
are exotic, imported from overseas, some and believe me when I say that this is the Cape, this member of the ginger
are native to this area and some are from equally stupefying. How can they possibly family has also made the transition into a
other states. One of my favourite species eat so many berries in one go? desirable garden plant.
is the Carpentaria Palm (Carpentaria It’s quite simple really. The Cape York Lily (Curcuma australasica)
acuminate) and it hails from rainforest After a big feed the pigeons find a comfy dies off completely in the dry to reappear
areas in the NT. perch and sit there serenely disgorging in spring. The showy ‘flower’ that catches
Carps are a tall (up to 12m), slender, the bulky seeds one after the other. the eye isn’t, in fact, a flower.
fast-growing species with lightweight I’m not sure which ‘end’ these cleaned It is made up of pink/red specialised
fronds that cause little damage when seeds exit from, but they are certainly leaves or bracts. The real flowers,
they fall off. If you are planning a tropical propelled out, allowing the birds to generally yellowish in colour, grow out of
garden, these attractive palms will provide recommence their feeding frenzy. the base of each bract.
you with some rapidly-achieved height.
It’s when they are in fruit that they
become truly amazing. RUSTY’S MARKETS
Keep a lookout as you move around the
area – the roundabout on the corner of Mad for mangoes
Tills and English Streets in Manunda is a Of course, for so many of us, the summer holidays are synonymous
good place to start. After flowering, with eating mangoes and Rusty’s Markets certainly caters for this.
the inflorescences become heavy As the weeks pass, the mango varieties will change but a mango is a
with a multitude of red ‘berries’, about mango, right? If you are a total mango fiend, you will be slicing, dicing
1cm across. It is quite a sight and really and freezing to prep for those mango-less days ahead. Another solution
forces you to appreciate the fecundity of to the mango drought is the dried version – it makes a great snack
this species. Oh, and by the way, it’s best and pick-me-up when the time lapse between lunch and dinner
not to handle these fruits – they can cause seems unbearable.
significant skin irritation.

10 • Tropic • Issue 33