The fruit is a large, eye-catching red or orange capsule with about 8 shiny black seeds. The seeds are edible raw or roasted but the black seed coat or testa should be removed first. They apparently taste like peanuts, hence the common name.
Not only were the seeds used as food by the Aboriginal people, the bark was used to weave baskets and other products. The inner bark of this tree was also important to them as a source of string, which was used for rope, fishing nets and fishing line.
It also served as a medicine tree: the crushed leaves were applied to wounds; an infusion of the bark was used for eye complaints; and, heated leaves were pressed on stings.
Available from specialist native or bush food nurseries.
Genus: Named after Sterculius, the Roman god of dung-heaps and privies. Refers to bad smell of flowers of some species.
Species: From the Latin, quadrifida: quadri - four, fidus - split, referring to the calyx being split into four lobes.