Lemony fruits and spicy hints mislead placement of Saffron Wood

The species name, croceum, may make you think of Crocus, which in turn may draw you towards saffron, the expensive spice harvested from the style (female bits) of the Crocus flower. Yet the flowers of this species are tiny and certainly do not have anything like the large styles prized in Crocus flowers

This small tree in Melbourne Gardens is called Elaeodendron croceum, the Saffron Wood. To be honest the first thing I thought off when I looked closely at the tree was not saffron but citrus. The fruits, as you can see are like tiny lemons, at least on the outside. 

Inside though they have a large central nut, so more like an olive. Although not to be eaten.

The names actually come from the yellow powdery material beneath the bark, enough to incite the common name 'saffron wood' and species name croceum ('croceum' is an epithet that can mean yellow as well as saffron).  

On the surface, the trunks are grey with orange-brown patches. When lightly scratched, the bark reveals more of that saffron-yellow (or orange) colour.

The inner bark color is apparently not unusual in the Celestraceae, which these days is a large family of more than 1300 species. While the bark of this particular species has been used for dyeing and tanning it contains toxic chemicals, and can be fatal to humans (and the bark of some species in Celestraceae has been used as an arrow poison). The leaves, roots and bark, however, have been used medicinally. 

The Saffron Wood is yet another South African plant. I seem to be drawn to them, and there are plenty in the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria collection. This one grows mostly in the southern Cape area of South Africa but extends through to Mozambique and Zimbabwe.  

The genus name Elaeodendron means something like an 'olive tree' (or as Neville Walsh suggested by email over muesli this morning, perhaps 'olive wood'), a reference to those tiny lemon-like fruits, and includes about 40 species from Africa to Indica and down into the Australian region.

We have two species in Australia, Elaeodendron australe, from eastern New South Wales and Queensland and Elaeodendron curtipendulum from Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and New Caledonia.

St Kilda Botanical Gardens has as a pair of prized specimens estimated to be 120 years old and listed by the National Trust. They use the common name African Holly, and younger leaves can have slightly spiny margins like a holly (Ilex). 

Comparing our specimen to theirs, it seems they are of a similar age and presumably all sourced by William Guilfoyle.