We first noticed the beautiful golden yellow flowers of the Kapok trees on the walk from Horseshoe Bay to Radical Bay, but we soon realised they were spread all over the island providing a spectacular sight from lookouts and along walking tracks. We later learnt that the soft woolly fibres produced in the seedpods were used to stuff pillows and that the trees are drought tolerant. The yellow flowers signal the dry season while green leaves signal the wet season. The indigenous Wulgurukuba people had many uses for different parts of the tree.
Medium sized skink apparently disturbed whilst hibernating, alive but sluggish.
Two patches (one larger, one smaller) around where I’m standing.
Pretty blue berries in a slight oval shape, growing at the end of a leaf stalk. Leaves are a deep dark green, smooth with unbroken edges, growing in a uniform ‘palm frond’ formation.
Berries were full of dark seeds with very little white flesh.