PARASITISM OF THE QUANDONG 
(Fusanus a cumin at us, R.Br.). 
By D. A. Herbert, M.Sc., Economic Botanist and Pathologist, 
Analytical Department, Perth. 
( Bead November 9 lh, 1920.) 
The Quandong (Fusanus ( wuminatus , B. Br.) is a native of 
Western Australia, and is variously known as Native Peach or 
Native Plum. It has a fruit somewhat bigger than that of the 
sandalwood, globular and red and about the size of a plum. This 
is edible and has a pleasant acid flavour. It is often made into 
jam. The quandong extends right down to the coast, a number 
of trees being found at Woodman's Point, south of Fremantle. 
Its wood is not valuable (though sometimes used to adulterate 
sandalwood consignments) and so it is as common in the bush as it 
ever was. It is closely related to the sandalwood and, like it, was 
found to be parasitic on surrounding trees. Cases of apparent 
isolation would at first sight appear to indicate that the quandong 
is not an obligatory parasite but on digging at isolated trees it 
was found that either a host plant had a long root running near 
the quandong, or else long roots of the quandong ran out and at- 
tacked distant roots. The haustoria are exactly of the sandalwood 
type. The investigation was carried out at Burracoppin in November, 
1920, and the host plants found were Acacia acuminata , Eucalyptus 
lorophleba , and Daviesia euphorbi aides. 
Often the roots are parasitic on themselves. This is of no 
advantage to the plant but does no appreciable harm, though rather 
a waste of energy on the part of the plant. Most of these root 
1 arasites show self-parasitism; a property also shared by some 
stem parasites, such as Cassytha and Cuscuta. 
OTHER SANTALACEOUS PARASITES. 
Other parasites belonging to this family were found on inves- 
tigation; in fact all the members of the family so far examined 
have been found to be parasitic. These results will be published 
in a future paper. 
