Australian Bushfoods: Salty Grapes (Nitraria billardierei)

Salty Grapes can be gold, red or purple

Nitre Bushes (Nitraria billardierei) are heavily in fruit at this time of year in our coastal areas.I got 2 kilos in a few minutes today.

When you meet them, you will see how apt the common name for their abundant fruit, 'Salty Grapes' is. These 'bush grapes' are the fruit if the Nitre Bush, a common, grey green bush that grows to about 2 metres high and can sprawl to cover quite a large area in saline areas.

The Nitre Bush can grow to 2m tall

Leaves are the distinguishing feature when the bush is not in flower or fruiting

Their leaves are a distinguishing feature, growing in clusters off of the stem. The leaves, in fact the whole plant is slightly hairy, even the fruit. Flowers are small and white and in clusters along the stems in Spring.

Tempting, golden and salty

The fruits can be red, purple or gold in colour and are just like grapes in size and consistency. On first bite, they are sweet lika a grape, then there is a bite of salt, making for an interesting taste combination.

Salty Grapes have been eaten by the Aboriginal folk along the coast and have been used as jam or dried by homesteaders and house keepers for generations.

If you follow these posts, or do any reading about Australian native plants, you might notice that many have 'Billardierei ' as part of their taxanomic name. This is because they were named after French botanist Jacques Julien de La Billardiere (1755-1834), a French botanist who visited Western Australia and Tasmania, naming many of the new species.

This is #originalwork. The pics were taken by yours truly.

You can find more great Bushfoods and Bush Medicines on our Aussie Bushfoods Index here on Steemit.

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