

This fascinating tree is growing in Queen's Park, one of the oldest parks in Mackay. Botanically, it is Conroupita guianensis, originating in Guiana. Its common name is cannonball tree, because following the flowers, there come round cannonball shaped fruit. The flowers are all up the trunk, on short stems. I have tried to show how tall the tree is, but it is reaching up through the canopy of the trees around it and must be about 50 to 60 feet high, pprobably about that age as well. I hope the closeup of the flower will enlarge for you, the centre part opens in two parts, the bees love them. I liked the pattern on the ground from the falling flowers as well.I have square eyes from trying to edit and sort directories of the photos stored on my computer. Bill is revising a couple of chapters of the Volunteer walking guides manual for the Botanic Gardens and keeps getting very cross with me as he can't find where I have stored the photos he needs. Well I have been having trouble finding them also, so today was the day I started to sort...........................I have a feeling this is going to be a long job. I have often taken the photos, but haven't had time to edit them when I have come home, then have forgotten about it later. At least I know they are on the computer somewhere..............well, I think they are anyway!! It is very easy to become quite slack about catalogueing everything properly AT THE TIME.
I think I have done enough for today, and I have downloaded all the new chapters for the online courses, so it is time to go and play for a while.
