CAT-00129
Apple berry
Billardiera scandens
Catalog fields
- Genus
- Billardiera
- Photo
- photos/CAT-00129-A.jpg
- Edible
- Yes
- layout
- single
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Published
- Yes
- Food group
- Fruit
- Latin name
- Billardiera scandens
- Fruit photo
- photos/CAT-00129-F.jpg
- Plant title
- Apple berry
- Source URLs
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Billardiera%20scandens | https://www.anbg.gov.au/apu/plants/billscan.html; https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?lvl=sp&name=Billardiera~scandens&page=nswfl; https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A684279-1 Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗ Open source 3 ↗ Open source 4 ↗
- Catalogue ID
- CAT-00129
- Mature width
- Not confirmed; allow spread appropriate to growth habit
- Native range
- Eastern Australia, apparently wide ranging at higher altitudes and tablelands from south-eastern Queensland to near the Victoria -New South Wales border, with disjunct populations at higher altitudes in Victoria. This range could change as confusion with similar species is resolved.
- Plant family
- Pittosporaceae
- Supplier SKU
- Not recorded
- Listing group
- Regional / traditional food plant
- Mature height
- Climbing stems to about 3 m
- Native states
- NSW, QLD, VIC
- Original list
- No
- Research date
- 10/10/2026
- Research notes
- Profile enriched from botanical/nursery sources. Dimensions are unpruned regional estimates where available; missing measurements remain explicit. Seasons are regional guides and vary with climate, location, cultivar and plant maturity. Drought and cultivation guidance are qualitative garden inferences, not measured ratings.
- Evidence status
- Published food use; preparation detail review pending
- Fruiting season
- Spring-summer in older ACT food account
- Background photo
- photos/CAT-00129-B.jpg
- Edible component
- Fully ripe fruit
- Flowering season
- Mainly summer in current NSW flora.
- Brief description
- Small scrambling shrub or climber with yellow bell-like flowers.
- Drought tolerance
- Moderate once established.
- Preparation notes
- Confirm species identification, the specified edible part, ripeness and species-specific preparation before use.
- Flower description
- Yellow bell-shaped flowers, often becoming pinkish at the tips, solitary or paired.
- General cultivation
- General guidance (qualitative): Promising light climber in drainage; verify taxonomy and local fruit maturity.
- Botanical description
- Habit: shrubby, rhizomatous to 0.5 m, eventually scandent; new shoots densely silky hairy. Leaves: adult leaves alternate, narrow ovate, 20–40 mm long, 6–14 mm wide; margins undulate, sinuate; silky hairy on both surfaces, petioles 1–4 mm. Inflorescences are single or paired bisexual flowers; stalks 5–12 mm long, hairy, angular, down turned but not nodding, bracts sepaline, caduceus. Sepals unequal, spreading, 6–10 mm long, yellow tinged pink, almost linear. Petals 16–20 mm long, clawed, briefly connivent at base, canary yellow, becoming pinker with age and sex phase change, apices hairy, not recurving. Stamens free, filaments white tapering, longer than anthers; anthers yellow ovoid; dehiscing through apical slits, pollen pink, mauve. Pistil with vestigial nectary; ovary silky hairy; short style, stigma knobby. Fruit bilocular indehiscent 20–28 mm long, berry-like, obovate to oblong in shape, very hairy with seeds in individual cells surrounded by a papery liner in two rows in each chamber. Seeds numerous, red-brown, discoidal, seed surface lightly striate. Peak flowering mainly summer.
- Other botanical names
- Not recorded
- Attracts birds and bugs
- Native bees and insects visit flowers; canopy shelters birds.
- Flora of Australia profile
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Billardiera%20scandens Open source ↗
- Fruit type and description
- Soft berry-like oblong fruit about 2-3 cm; eat only the fully ripe specified fruit.
- Flora of Australia citation
- Lindy Cayzer. Billardiera scandens. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Canberra. https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Billardiera%20scandens (accessed 2026-10-14). Copyright Commonwealth of Australia; CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). HTML formatting removed; species-level context added where noted. Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗
- Flora of Australia retrieved
- 14/10/2026