I found several small, fibrous, ovoid husks washed up on the shore at Trinity Beach and Normanby Island when I visited Queensland in Australia; and I wondered what they were. Sometimes, the fibres were still covered and contained by a tough leathery blackened skin with an unusual keel extending around the perimeter of the fruit. They had obviously lain on the beach and floated in the sea for quite a time. I couldn’t work out what they were.
It was not until I was enjoying a cold drink at a beach-side cafe in Port Douglas that I found the answer. A ruckus drew my attention to a tree in which a group of black parrots were noisily squabbling over fruits. Clusters of bright green fruits of the same peculiar shape and size as the flotsam specimens were growing high on the branches and also lay scattered whole, opened, or half-eaten on the ground where the parrots had dropped them. They were Beach Almonds.
The fruits belong to a family of trees (Combretaceae) common in the tropics. The Genus Terminalia has about 200 species, and I think it likely that the fruits I found were from one of the three most common species on the beaches of northern Queensland, Terminalia catappa, T. arenicola, or T. seriocarpa. The fruits are described as being canoe-shaped and ripening from green to blue-purple.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. I’ve seen these many times but didn’t know they were called beach almonds … I like that. Your macro image is fascinating.
Fascinating to us but I’m guessing the locals just get tired of cleaning them up!
Thank you for the feedback.
I expect some other small creature comes along and eats what’s left!
I think the thing I like best about your post- and posts in general- is that you are so thoroughly engaged and curious enough to follow through in investigating, documenting. I remember moaning in writing classes back in college to which our instructor would point out that very small things and very small actions are the potential subject-matter for great stories. And these things are available daily. Happy New Year
Thank you so much for your comments, Abbey. I really appreciate them. I get a lot of pleasure from observing and photographing the things I see, and trying to understand what I am looking at, and then writing it up. If someone else gains something from what I do, it is an added bonus.
How extraordinary! What an amazing find – a real treasure!
Happy ending! Sometimes its frustrating to never find out the answer to these riddles. I’d say you’re very persistent in researching Jessica, although a little luck like in this case can’t hurt.
It was good to find out the answer to the question.
Yes, fortunate circumstances. It is true that sometimes the resolution of a riddle seems far out of reach – but I don’t give up!