Our incredible local plants

Its prickly leaves and trunk marked with spirally arranged leaf scars, this tree is a stand out feature of many wetland areas.

The Spiral Pandanus, or Pandanus spiralis is important to many Indigenous people.

The fruit contains delicious kernels that taste like peanuts and can be eaten raw or roasted, if you know how to extract them from the fibrous fruit.

The ends of fresh fruit can be chewed to obtain a juice and the base of the leaves can also be eaten. Many different medicinal preparations can be made from this useful tree.

The core of the stem can be eaten or made into a preparation that can be drunk to alleviate most digestive ailments, dental and mouth sores and skin ulcers and wounds.

The leaves of some plants can also be stripped to produce a string that is woven into fish traps, mats, baskets, bags, rope and arm bands.

The roots can be used as drum sticks and the trunks make great rafts.

Dead, dry branches and trunk segments can also be used to carry fire - the fibrous wood smoulders slowly and evenly without flaring.

Pandanus trees are very useful to wildlife.

The spiny leaves provide safe accommodation to birds, frog and small reptiles. Keen-eyed night-stalkers can often find the tiny frog Litoria bicolour hidden amongst the pleated leaves.

These frogs can be seen moving around the tree at dusk when flying insects come down to the water to drink.

This is also a great chance to spot the predators of frogs - Golden Tree Snakes and spiders can also be found stalking through the spiny tangle searching for dinner.

Also, Wupupupkaji, Silky Grevillea, Darwin Silky Oak, Ferny Leave Silky Oak, Fern Leaved Grevillea, Wiyinti, Golden Grevillea, Golden Tree, Yatjja and Golden Parrot Tree - the name used for Grevillea pteridifolia depends very much on where you come from.

This beautiful, slender dark trunked tree has orange flowers that are seen in our area at the start of the Jawoyn season of Malapbar, or cold weather season.

Further west the appearance of the flowers signals that the warmer, build-up conditions are soon on their way.

Grevillea pteridifolia produces large amounts of nectar that can be sucked straight from the flower or used in a sweet, refreshing drink.

The nectar is also an important source of food for birds and bees.

The strong wood is used in a variety of ways depending on your location - boomerangs, clap sticks, spears, woomeras and digging sticks can all be made from the tough, springy wood.

In western regions of the Northern Territory charcoal from burnt pieces of timber can be mixed with fat or water and used as body paint for dancing.

Over two thirds of our modern day antibiotics have been originally sourced from plants and the microbes that are found living on them.

There have been some potentially useful chemical compounds found in microbes that live on this particular Grevillea.

The many historical and potential uses of this plant are a reminder that it is so important for us as a community to ensure that the incredibly complex and beautiful habitat in our region is protected.

Who knows how we might be able to use this spectacular plant in the future.

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