SCRUB IRONWOOD Gossia bidwillii
The Scrub Ironwood is a member of the Myrtaceae family; Genus – Gossia, Species – bidwillii.
Schoolchildren often call this tree the Refrigerator Tree because its trunk, when compared with other surrounding trees, is very cold to touch. It is also known as the Python Tree, perhaps because its mottled green and tan colouring and slightly twisting trunk resemble the marking and sinuous form of a large python.
The Scrub Ironwood is an attractive, slender tree growing to a height of about 25 metres. Its bark is smooth with blotchy patterning in green, tan, brown and orange colours but its most distinguishing feature is its coldness to the touch when compared with surrounding trees. On a cold morning the dense wood remains cold and water will condense and run off the trunk while surrounding trees remain dry. Sometimes a tree will form buttress roots. Branchlets on this tree are smooth and brown. The opposite, simple leaves are about 80 to 105 mm in length and elliptical or ovate in shape. When crushed they have a slightly eucalyptus smell.
Flowering occurs between August and March: small 2 to 5 mm sweetly scented white flowers with 4 but mostly 5 petals. They are often high in the tree and difficult to see. The fruit usually appears between October and May. It is a purple/black berry, about 4 to 10 mm in size, containing cream to brown coloured seeds. Many birds, including the lovely Rose-crowned Fruit Doves, feast on the fruit of this tree.
There are several Scrub Ironwood trees to be seen along the Paluma Rainforest Track – some of them quite close to the entrance of the track. See if you can spot them, growing among trees similar in appearance. The smooth, cold bark is the distinctive feature.
Text and Photo by Colwyn Campbell