Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa)

Alice Springs Flora •

Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Apple Bush Bougainvillea Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander

The Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) is an introduced flowering evergreen tree or shrub species in Australia. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, as well as being used as an ornamental tree.

Native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, they are a tough drought-tolerant shade tree and can be found growing in the drier arid parts of Australia.

Most Carob Trees are dioecious (that is, the male and female flowers are on separate plants), although some trees can be hermaphroditic. The flowers are small and numerous, arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes that are borne on spurs from old wood and on the trunk. The male flowers are said to smell like human semen, an odour that is caused in part by amines. Others have described the smell as musty, fetid, malodorous, like a rotting carcass, dead fish and wet dogs.

In the following photo, it appears to show the male flower along side the maturing seed pods. Both male and female flowers are required to produce seed. In this instance, there appear to be no other Carob Tree nearby.

The fruit of the Carob Tree is a legume (although commonly referred to as a pod). The fruit are elongated, compressed, straight, can be twisted or curved, and thickened at the sutures. They are green when immature, then maturing from a light to dark brown in colour. The pods take a year to develop and ripen, before eventually falling to the ground.

The Carob pods are said to have a sweet pulp when separated from the hard seed. The pulp has been used for making a chocolate substitute in some places, as well as being ground into a flour for use as ingredient in cakes, bread, sweets and ice cream.

The leaves are approximately 10 to 20 centimetres long, alternate, pinnate, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet. In ideal conditions the Carob Tree can grow up to 15 metres tall.

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Plantae
• Phylum: Tracheophyta
• Subphylum: Angiospermae
• Class: Magnoliopsida
• Order: Fabales
• Family: Fabaceae
• Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
• Tribe: Cassieae
• Genus: Ceratonia
• Species: Ceratonia siliqua

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Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Apple Bush Bougainvillea Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander

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