Valued for millenia by the indigenous communities of Arid Australia for its nutritious, sweet fruits, the Desert Quandong is an equally challenging, hardy and unique fruit tree to grow. The Desert Quandong is unique amongst edible fruit trees for its hemiparasitic nature, whereby it derives its soil nutrition and water requirements from a host plant/plants. For plants to succed, the Desert Quandong requires a host plant or plants to paratise and is able to draw nutrients from plants up to 10m away so there is no requirement for host plants to be densely planted. Natively, the Desert Quandong preferences nitrogen fixing plants although regardless of the choice it is important to ensure that host plants remain healthy to ensure nutrient and water uptake can occur. As a hemiparastic plant, the Desert Quandong performs its own photosynthesis and as such prefers a full sun position, additionally soil structure should be free draining although fertility requirements and PH are most relevant to ensure host plant health. Care should be taken with host selection as plants can draw toxic chemicals from host plants which are present in fruits. The Desert Quandong is also known as the Native Peach owing to the large central seed within fruits similar to a Peach (botanically the fruits are classified as drupes), although the flesh to seed ratio is much poorer as expected for a still relatively wild fruit. Fruits are vibrantly red and grow up to 2.5cm long with an appearance similar to a bumpy skinned Gooseberry. The sweet fruits are suited to fresh eating, preserving in jams, being made into pies or drying. Desert Quandongs are variable in size with plants forming a shrub or tree likely dependent on the ability to parasitise from nearbly hosts. Foliage is distinctly eucalupyt with slender, olive leaves and attractive, tiny white flowers which form fruits that ripen in the Spring. Challenging but uniquely rewarding, the Desert Quandong requires gardeners to consider both host and parasite although the satisfying reward of success and the sweet, red fruits is well worth an attempt.
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