Little Kurrajong

I am excited to announce that my Little Kurrajong seeds have germinated! A few months ago while walking around the block near work, I noticed some scrappy small trees covered in harlequin bugs. Two weeks later I walked past and there were only a handful of bugs left, not many leaves and the start of a couple of pink flowers. Like the good plant nerd I am, I researched and found out that the trees were ‘Little Kurrajong’ trees (Brachychiton Bidwillii), a native to South Eastern Queensland. Quick decomposition of the scientific name: the ‘brachy’ is from the Greek word ‘brachys’ meaning short, ‘chiton’ means tunic, which is a reference to the fine hairy coating on the seed and ‘bidwillii’ is after John Bidwill who was a botanical collector in the 1800’s. (Anything ending in ii usually means it is named after someone).

Harlequin bugs

Little Kurrajong trees are a member of the Malvaceae family, which is the same as hibiscus, cotton and chinese lanterns - explaining the reason it was covered in Harlequin bugs, as they love cotton and hibiscus! The trees are also closely related to the well known Flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolium) and the Queensland bottle tree (Brachychiton repestris). The roasted and ground seeds of the Kurrajong tree (Brachychiton populneus) can also be used as a bush tucker coffee substitute! (I’m not sure if this would extend to the little Kurrajong?)

The whole seedpod and the seeds inside are covered with tiny hairs.

Little Kurrajong trees will take a wide range of soil types, as long as they’re reasonably well drained, and grow to a few meters tall. They are deciduous and will drop all their leaves before they flower which is what they were doing just after I saw them covered in harlequin bugs. Like a lot of other pests and diseases, their ‘attack’ was timed when the plant was already ready to solve the problem. A good encouragement to observe first rather than reach for the sprays!

Little Kurrajong covered in masses of flowers.

The flowers are beautiful and last for many weeks, and it was this striking display of colour that made me take home a couple of seed pods to see if I could grow my own.

I scarified the seeds first (fancy term for nicking the seed with a sharp knife and soaking in boiling water for 24 hours) and nearly 4 weeks later I’m delighted that they have germinated.