BUNYA NUT, Araucaria bidwillii

This majestic tree with its enormous cones has a straight trunk, large prickly leaves and separate male and female flowers. The 10kg female cones contain delicious edible nuts that can be eaten raw or boiled to make extraction from the hard shell easier. Nuts can be sliced or pureed and added to desserts and savoury dishes or roasted as a potato substitute. The nut's flour can also be used to make breads and cakes.  Due to their extremely prickly nature the bunya pine makes a fantastic habitat tree for birds, they are favoured roosting places for fruit pigeons and trees often contain many birds nests.  The silhouette of the bunya pine is unmistakable with it's handsome open rounded crown.  They have been widely planted since European settlement and have proved to be a very hardy specimen tree withstanding frosts, low moisture levels and strong winds.  The falling cones due to their size and weight can be a hazard so it is wise not to sit, stand or park your car under a fruiting bunya. 

Tips on Bunya Nut ^BETA

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Bunya Nut

it is feb 2006 and we are collecting bunyas here in maleny | Lisa Brunckhorst - Maleny, QLD 07-Feb-2006

Bunya Nut

Steamed (in the shell )Bunya Nuts - delicious native food.Bankstown and all Sydney has many Bunya Trees fruiting. | Rolf - Bankstown, NSW 26-Mar-2006

Bunya Nut

It is incorrect that Bunya's only fruit every threeyears. My tree now 30 years old, typically drops about 35 cones beginning about 20th January thru to 14th February, every year. | Harold Klose - Wauchope, NSW 06-May-2006

Bunya Nut

Typically it is a heavier crop every three years. The Bunya mountains have not cropped well for ten years though, according to the park rangers I spoke to in April, probably due to drought. Byron area had good falls this year 06. | Mike Nicholas - Lennox Head, NSW 18-May-2006

Bunya Nut

Not common in this part of the world, but, you can admire five huge Bunyas in Mexico City, just a few meters away from the Niños Heroes Monument, at the base of the Chapultepec Castle. Today, july 5, 2006, I picked up seven large nuts. | Teodoro Harrsch - Mexico City, DF 06-Jul-2006

Bunya Nut

We have a Bunya tree at the entrance to our Condo building in Sacramento, CA. It is fruiting right now and drops about a half-dozen cones per week. | Dan Thompson - Sacramento, CA 24-Aug-2006

Bunya Nut

3YEARLY LARGE CROP : Generally there is a large crop / bumpercrop every 3 years and then a few cones annually . Soaking the shelled nuts in water for more than 12 hours removes the enzyme inhibiting factor for better digestion. | R O L F - Bankstown, Sydney, NSW 24-Oct-2006

Bunya Nut

We have 4 trees @ 40 mtrs high planted circa 1880's (120 yrs old). They drop cones every year with the largest exceeding 18kg's. Last year many of the trees in our area were de-coned by arborists for safety but we have a second flush of cones falling now | Burns Road - Wahroonga, Sydney, NSW 12-Feb-2007

Bunya Nut

The University of Melbourne, Victoria has a lagre Bunya tree. It has recently dropped one cone. A collegue and I can't see any more cones from the base of the tree - so it must be in between the three years. | Susan Butler - Melbourne, VIC 11-Mar-2008

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Updated: 3rd of July, 2008 at 12:02pm © Disclaimer/Privacy/Copyright