Apricot Satinash, Rain Cherry, Small Red Bush Apple, Fibrous Satinash — it’s all the same bush tucker!

Australian Bush Tucker Bites presents Rain Cherry (Syzygium fibrosum).

So many common names for a plant not commonly known! This beauty grows in the rainforest understorey across Northern Australia and in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

I was introduced to it by a student who descends from the original custodians of this sunburnt country. I told them not to eat the (not formally identified) fruit in my class and was therefore denied the pleasure of trying them, but I really wanted to!

Of course, they ate them as soon as they thought my back was turned. I was envious.

These small tart fruits have been eaten for thousands of years and included in jams, sauces and chutneys more recently.

I’m off now to find a nursery to get my own specimen!