The Western Australian Christmas Tree

Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are going ok. I have a friend who is desperately trying to get home to her family in Western Australia for Christmas. I hope you will be with your loved ones this year. It would be a very sad time to be apart, especially after the year it has been, and I know that many around the world will be without a loved one. 

The Western Australian bush around where we live is alive with colour this time of year. I've blogged about it before: The trees are blooming for Christmas

The yellow of the Candlestick Banksia, the purple of the Jacarandas, the red of the Red Flowering gum, and the golden yellow-orange of the Western Australian Christmas tree - Nuytsia floribunda.  

This tree is actually the world's tallest parasitic tree. It occurs naturally only in the south west of Western Australia. Their roots parasite onto the roots of other trees or plants.

I read some astounding information about it the other day at Australian Geographic - Australia's giant parasitic Christmas Tree

"The Christmas tree is indiscriminate, stealing juice from almost anything green – grasses, sedges, carrots, weeds, vines, shrubs, eucalypts." 

Named moojar  or Kaanya Tree (kaanya, meaning recently departed soul) by the indigenous Noongar people, it has a powerful spiritual significance for the Noongar culture, who believed the spirits of ancestors rested in the branches. For this reason they stayed away from the tree, would not cut it down, and didn't disturb animals that rested under it. 

I read that it was prized for its edible roots and gum, but this may not be correct. There is an interesting web-post you can read more about this here: Anthropology from the shed - Traditional significance of the Moojar

However here is an interesting podcast which has slightly different information regarding the uses of the tree - abcmedia.esperance-Moojar tree

Up to 10 metres tall it flowers from October to January, though where I live we usually see it from early December. It is the only plant in the mistletoe family that has seeds that are wind dispersed. The flowers are a rich source of nectar for the nectar eating birds and insects for the insect eating birds.

Click here to find out some more fascinating information about this tree: ABC.net - native WA Christmas Tree

and Australian Native Nursery

A bit more information I found today:

The Sacred Mooja or WA Christmas Tree ~The Tree of Souls~

Don't Pick the Flowers!

"The Moojar tree (Nuytsia floribunda) commonly known as the Western Australian Christmas tree. The moojar was regarded as “highly spiritual” because it was associated with the spirits of the dead who according to the ‘old people’ “camped” on the branches and flowers of the tree on their way to Kurannup – the land of the ancestors across the Western ocean. They said to us: ‘We don’t like to go near this tree.’

The cultural significance of Nuytsia floribunda is well established in the early ethnohistorical records. Daisy Bates in an article in The Australasian (1926 in Bridge 1992: 150) refers to it as the “ghost tree” and in a later publication (1938) “the tree of souls.” Her Noongar informants call it the moojarr or “Kaanya Tree” (kaanya, meaning recently departed soul). Bates emphasises that this tree was sacred to all Bibbulmun people throughout southwestern Australia from Jurien Bay to the east of Esperance. She categorically states that:

‘No living Bibbulmun ever sheltered or rested beneath the shade of the tree of souls; no flower or bud or leaf of the tree was ever touched by child or adult; no game that took shelter beneath it was ever disturbed.’ (Bates 1938 in Bridge 1992: 153)"

https://anthropologyfromtheshed.com/.../traditional.../

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed my post today about the native Western Australian Christmas tree. We enjoy seeing this splash of colour in the bush this time of year. 

For those who celebrate Christmas I wish you a very happy Christmas spent with those you love. For those without their loved ones I hope that you will be reunited soon or can be comforted by happy memories of them. I know this Christmas will be like no other, but I hope you will feel the peace and joy of Christmas. And for everyone, a safe and healthy conclusion to 2020 and a better 2021.

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.  

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

All Seasons 
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 

Our World Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity.
Thankful Thursday 
Der-Natur-Thursday 

The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit
 Month end link up @ Live love craft me

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.