Central Land Council

Central and Eastern Arrernte name: ahakeye

Scientific name: Canthium attenuatum

Common name: native currant

Uses: mythology, edible fruit

ahakeye

Ahakeye is an extremely significant plant. It is a totem for many Aboriginal people and has an altyerre (dreaming story) associated with it. According to the law the tree has to be treated with respect. The fruit must be gently picked from the tree and you aren't supposed to eat too much of them. When we were young and walking around with our families, if we came across an ahakeye tree our grandparents and other family members would tell us about it – how important it was, how to pick and eat the fruit with respect.

The fruit was picked and eaten fresh. You can't eat too many of them because they give you a funny numb feeling in the mouth.

ahakeye

Threats: You don't seem to get as many flowers or as much fruit on the ahakeye trees anymore. It's as though the ahakeye plant has lost its will to continue flowering and fruiting because the connections have been lost between it and the people of the land. The ceremonies are not happening like they used to and the importance of trees like this has been forgotten. The mythological importance of the plants and the land is being forgotten. There are also other things little cattle, buffel grass and other foreign weeds, fire and maybe even the changing climate that are affecting them.

Eastern Arrernte name: aherre-aherre

Scientific name: Cybopogon abgiuus

Common name: lemon grass

Uses: medicine

aherre-aherre

There are two types of aherre-aherre , one with broad leaves and another with thinner, blue-green leaves. They both grow in hilly areas and in small gullies and river beds. People collect the leaves to use as a medicine. Before there were billycans the leaves were ground up, put in a scoop of water and drunk as a tea. This medicine is good for flus, sore throats and other mouth infections such as ulcers. Nowadays people boil up the leaves in a pot or billy to make a tea to treat the same kind of ailments.

Threats: These grasses can still be found in gullies and hilly country, but are susceptible to being destroyed by buffel and couch grass, fire and cattle in the bigger rivers.

Eastern Arrernte name: aherre-intenhe

Scientific name: Eremophila dutonii

Common name: red poverty bush

Uses: medicine, honey

aherre-intenhe

Aherre-intenhe is named after kangaroos because they lie down under it to get out of the wind and keep warm. You can see the clearings under the bushes where kangaroos have been lying. It is a significant tree for certain people associated with the kangaroo totem.

The leaves of aherre-intenhe were collected and used as a medicine. The leaves were ground up and mixed with a little water. The green leaf juice was applied to sores like burns, scabies, head sores and other weeping sores. It was also used as a rubbing medicine for muscle soreness and other aches and pains. When billy cans came about people used to boil it and use it as a wash. They would also just wash in it or bathe in it in those big tin dishes. This medicine is still used by people today.

After rain the plants get sticky when the new growth comes on. You can see the shiny sap on the leaves – it has a really strong smell. That's the medicine that is collected from the leaves. People would collect and use aherre-intenhe any time they needed it, but it is more potent when the sticky residue has built up on the leaves and when the new growth comes on. The plants also get a nice orange-red flower on them. People suck the honey from the flowers and it's good for sore throats. The leaves curl up a bit when there's not much rain about. The seeds come on after they flower and drop onto the ground and new ones come up when it rains. They like hard, pebbly soil. There aren't any aherre-intenhe growing in the town itself, probably more out bush on the sides of smaller hills. The main band of them in the Alice Springs area is on the eastern edge of town, just before Emily Gap.

aherre-intenhe

Threats: Some of the plants get fairly big, but it takes a long time for them to grow. Fire burns them off, but they tend to regenerate again from underneath like all bush trees do. Mistletoe also seems to kill them off and some die off because they're too old. Some survive and others die of due to the weather, fire or no rain. They also tend to grow in one area in a band. The main band of them in the Alice Springs area is threatened by the Emily Hills Estate development. Arrernte people are very concerned about the destruction of these plants.

Eastern Arrernte name: Alhelpe

Scientific name: Eucalyptus spp.

Common name: mallee

Alhelpe

There are different kinds of mallees growing in different areas, all called alhelpe. The manna on the alhelpe leaves was collected and eaten. The seeds were also collected and ground and used as a flour , or made into a paste and eaten.

People used to use the root bulb of these trees for making water carriers. The bush bee sometimes makes its hives in them as well.

Alhelpe

Threats: In some areas, like at the boundary gate to Santa Teresa ALT, the alhelpe have been burnt too many times and a lot of them have died out. They used to be really thick there, along the side of the small hills, but now there are hardly any of them. The ones that have been burnt are taking a long time to grow back. It's sad to see it like this. The utnanthe or urrenyenke (gidyea) used to be thick in this area as well, but now the trees look unhealthy and there are hardly any leaves on them. This is probably because they are badly treated by people and burnt too often. People drive their cars in there as well and the roots are getting damaged.

Eastern Arrernte name: altyeye and awerretyapwere or ngerake

Scientific name: Marsdenia australis and Rhyncharrhena linearis

Common name: bush banana and bush bean

altyeye

Uses: mythology, food

The altyeye is an important plant for the Arrernte people and is a totem to certain people. All of the plant was eaten, including the fruit ( alangkwe ), flower ( ulkarntyerrknge ), leaves ( altyeye ) and roots ( atnetye) . The young fruits are eaten raw, but you shouldn't eat too many of them they can give you a funny sensation in the mouth. The flowers and young shoots are quite sweet and are also eaten raw. The older fruits are bitter and need to be cooked before they are eaten. The leaves are rolled up and cooked in hot ash. The root was dug up and eaten fresh or cooked. The old people told us not to eat too many roots because they make you skinny – they taste a bit like aniseed . When it rains the altyeye comes up fairly quickly and flowers and fruits before it gets too hot. It grows from down on the ground there and climbs on trees, twisting around like a snake.

The awerretyapwere grows in thick mulga and witchetty bush country. They grow pretty well up the north road in the thick mulga and out towards Mt Ntulye (Undoolya). Just the fruit and the young leaves are eaten. The flowers aren't clumped together like the altyeye plant, but are spread out along the stem, and there're not as sweet either.

Eastern Arrernte name: angelthe

Scientific name: Cynanchum floribundum

Common name: native pear

angelthe

Uses: edible fruit, leaves and stem

The fruit, flowers and young shoots of the angelthe were picked and eaten fresh. Stems of the plant were also picked with the leaves and fruit on it and rolled up and cooked in hot ash. Older fruit had to be cooked because it gets too bitter.

The seeds are similar those of the alangkwe (bush banana) or a werretyapwere (bush bean). They get blown around by the wind and germinate where they fall.

angelthe

Threats: There isn't as many of these plants around as there used to be. In the early days you used to see them growing everywhere on flat country and in river beds, but now you're lucky to just see one or two. There are less of them now because of foreign grasses and other plants, and maybe even cattle and climate change. Fire does a lot of damage to them too – the seeds could easily get burnt up, and even the plant itself unless it has a strong enough root that it can regenerate from after the fire.

Eastern Arrernte name: apere

Scientific name: Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Common name: River red gum

apere

Uses: mythology, sweet lerp from leaves, honeydew on thin bark, witchetty grubs in roots and trunk, edible seeds, red sap in bark from older trees used as medicine, water source

Apere trees are very significant trees to Arrernte people. Certain trees have an altyerre (dreaming story) associated with them.

The ngkwarl e aperaltye (lerp manna) is collected from the gum leaves and eaten. If you collected more than you could ea, you stored it in caves or on a tree platform for later use. During the station times, our people used to go out and break the limbs off the gum trees and put them on a cloth and rub the leaves to make the manna fall onto the cloth. It was then cleaned up and rolled into balls. For little kids they used to make a little ball the size of a Tom Bowler, and for bigger kids they made them the size of a golf ball. That's how they used to store it as well, rolled up in balls. It was a neat way of storing it. You had to collect it fresh when it was still sticky so it would roll up into a ball.

apere

The aperarnte (honeydew) seeps out from the thin bark when it peels from the tree. The honey drops onto the ground and is really sticky. When we were kids we used to go around picking up the little drops of honey using a stick or grass stems. The honey was really clear. We would put it in our hands or on a piece of bark. You could also pick up the bark and eat the honeydew straight off it. If it was good times you could collect a lot of it and just eat it straight. It tastes a bit like eucalyptus. You can get it off ilwempe (ghost gum) too, when the thin bark is peeling off the tree.

The apere seeds were collected and eaten in dry times when there weren't many other seeds around. People collected the pods green and left them in the sun to dry out. The seeds were easy to collect then. They were ground up into a paste like the bigger seeds and either eaten as a paste or cooked up and eaten like a cake.

The bark from older trees was collected for medicine. The inner bark was peeled off and pounded with a rock and then put into a coolamon or scoop and mixed with water to extract the sap, apere alhwe . This was used to wash sore eyes and sores and as a mouth wash. Sometimes the bark was pounded and moistened, and the juice sap was squeezed straight onto the sore or into the mouth.

The apere has two sorts of witchetty grubs – the ingwenenge in the trunk and the ahernenge in the roots. The ingwenenge is stripey and is similar to the tyape that lives in the ankerre (coolibah tree), called the ankerrutne . You can still see the purple stripes on them when they get older and turn into moths. The ahernenge don't have stripes and are whiter. These grubs used to be eaten a lot in the early days but people don't eat them as much now. Some turn into moths just before the rain comes. The younger ones are still under ground and people used to collect them and eat them. They live on the side of river banks and you look for a little lid like a trap door spider. You stick the hook down there and hook the witchetty and pull it up, but you have to be quick!

The roots of the apere were also a source of water. They were broken off in sections and placed on a slant in a coolamon for a few hours while the water dripped out of them. Water was collected this way during harsh times. The hollows of certain trees also collected water after rain that people used to drink. This was called kwatyewapere .

Eastern Arrernte name: arlepe

Scientific name: Acacia victoriae

Common name: prickly wattle

arlepe

Uses: edible seeds, edible grub in roots, sap from the trunk is a chewing gum

People collected ntange (edible seeds) of the arlepe to eat. They were collected green and cooked in alpmanth e (hot ash). The dried seed pods were picked before the seeds fell and put in a coolamon to be yandied. The wind would carry off the broken up seed pods and the seeds would fall into the coolamon. If there was no wind, people had to blow onto the seeds to remove the broken seed pods. The seeds were ground and mixed with water to make a small biscuit that was eaten raw or cooked.

arlepe

A small flat-headed witchetty grub from the roots of this tree was eaten by our people. The witchetty is called tyape arleparenye . There is also a sap that the children eat. Camels like to eat this tree too!

Eastern Arrernte name: arlkerle

Scientific name: Salsola kali

Common name: rolypoly

arlkerle

Uses: edible witchetty grub

These tumble weeds have a similar edible grub in their roots to the witchetty bush. They're only small grub but they look the same. They're called tyape arlkerlatye . Mainly children collected and ate them. But when there wasn't anything else around, adults ate them too.

arlkerle

Eastern Arrernte name: arlketyerre

Scientific name: Acacia tetragonophylla

Common name: dead finish

arlketyerre

Uses: cure for warts, edible seeds, edible sap, edible grub, medicine

The irlpelhe (leaf) is used to cure warts. Three or four leaves are poked into the wart to make it bleed, and are left in for a short time. Within a few days the wart drops off. Usually warts on the soft part of the skin are treated, not those on the palms of the hand or the soles of the feet. The irrkngelhe (bark of the root) was used to make a medicinal wash for sores and sore eyes. The bark was stripped from the roots and soaked in water. Today people boil it up in water.

arlketyerre

The ntange (edible seeds) were collected and treated in the same way as the other wattles (see above). The ngkwarle arlketyerrarenye (edible sap) was collected mainly by children and eaten as a chewing gum. A flat-headed witchetty grub, tyape arlketyerrarenye, was also dug up from the roots. This tyape was also mainly eaten by children, but adults ate them in hard times when there wasn't anything else around.

Eastern Arrernte name: arlperre

Scientific name: Atalaya hemiglauca

Common name: whitewood

arlperre

Uses: edible sap, edible witchetty grub in roots, stems used for ornaments and toys, seeds used by children as a toy, leaves/branches used for building and implements

The sap, called arlperrampwe, was eaten by children. A little back beetle bores into the wood and the sap starts seeping out of the tree. There's also a flat-headed witchetty grub that lives in the roots, called tyape arlperrarenye . These grubs were eaten during hard times when there wasn't any other witchetty grubs available. You only get them at certain times of the year. The grub is still eaten by some people today.

arlperre

The seeds of this tree weren't eaten, but were used by children to play ‘helicopters' with – they'd throw them up into the air when it was windy and chase them saying, “Look at my helicopter, mine's going quicker than yours!? With a big wind they used to fly for a while.

The stems were used for making small nulla nullas, called kwetere for little girls to play with. People also used them for walking sticks, or irrertetye . Today people make artefacts, like lizards or echidnas with them. The wood is easy to carve. The branches were used for building ilthe , the wurleys that people lived in.

Eastern Arrernte name: arnterre

Scientific name: Acacia murrayana

Common name: colony wattle

arnterre

Uses: edible seeds, sap and grubs

The colony wattle is called arnterre by our people . The flowers are round like a little cotton ball and are an orange-yellow colour, rather than a pale yellow. The ntange (edible seeds) were collected and eaten by our people. When dry, they were collected and ground into a flour . They were also eaten green - the pods were cooked in hot ash, then peeled open and eaten like peas. You need to cook them to remove the bitter taste before eating them.

arnterre

There is also an edible grub that lives in the roots, called tyape arnterrarenye , similar to the one from other wattle tree roots (see arlepe , the prickly wattle). The sap from the trunk was eaten by children as a chewing gum.

Eastern Arrernte name: arrankweye, ankweleye

Scientific name: Santalum lanceolatum

Common name: bush plum

arrankweye

Uses: edible fruit, wood used for tools and artefacts, fruit used as dye

The arrankweye is a significant food plant for all Arrernte people and is a totem for certain people. It was looked after because of its importance as a food source and because of its other uses. The trees tend to grow in bands amongst other trees, rather than growing on their own. The fruit looks like an olive and there is more seed in it than flesh. The fruit was mainly picked and eaten fresh. If they were picked when they had dried out a bit, they were put in water to soften them up and make it easier to peel the flesh off the seed. The fruit was also used to dye reeds to plait into baskets or to make play things for children, like reed skirts.

arrankweye

The straight stems of arrankweye were used for making ornaments and amirre (woomeras), and big branches were used to make murlke (small scoops for digging or carrying food). The wood is easy to carve and it hardens up when it dries out. The stems were turned in hot ash or sand to make the bark peel off more easily.

Threats: They are easily broken by cattle and camels, which eat them. The small trees are susceptible to being killed off by fire. The older ones tend to shoot back from down below. Strong plants will survive fire and cattle damage, others will die off.

Eastern Arrernte name: arrethe

Scientific name: Eremophila freelingii

Common name: native fuchsia

arrethe

Uses: medicine

The leaves of arrethe are collected and used as a medicine for aching joints, arthritis and muscle soreness associated with flus, and also for scabies and other skin disease. It was even used for sexually transmitted diseases in the past. It was the responsibility of the aperle and ipmenhe (grandmothers) in the arlwekere (women's single camp) and the arrenge and atyemeye (grandfathers) in the arnkentye (single men's camp) to look after the young teenage men and women. This included concern for their general wellbeing and also providing them with medical care. Medicines that were traditionally used for colds, burns and washes etc, were later used to treat diseases that people started to catch like flus, measles and sexually transmitted diseases.

arrethe

The leaves can be crushed and soaked in water to make a medicinal wash or bath to soak in. Before there were baths and billy cans, the leaves were ground up with a small amount of water and the green leaf juice was squeezed directly on to the aching joints, sore muscle or sores. Sometimes people drank the medicine for sore throats, toothaches and resistance against sickness. People also boiled the leaves in water and the vapour was inhaled. This is a common use for this plant today.

Arrethe mainly grow on the side of small rocky hills. During dry times the leaves dry out and the plant lays dormant until the rain comes. The dry leaves were still used if they were needed. They occur throughout the East MacDonnell Ranges .

Eastern Arrernte name: arrkernke

Scientific name: Corymbia opaca

Common name: bloodwood

arrkernke

Uses: sap used for medicine, edible coconut, seed capsules used for necklaces, bush bees make their hives in the trunk

The arrkipere (red sap) is collected and used as a medicine. It is mixed with water and used as a mouthwash or for washing sores and sore eyes. The wet sap was applied to boils to make them burst, similar to magnoplasm.

arrkernke

We eat the coconut, merne arrkipangkwerle that is found on this tree. You knock the coconuts down by throwing a stick or rock at them - you can knock them off quite easily. You eat the little grub that's inside, it is like a sac in the centre and the outside is like coconut flesh. When you pick it, to see if it's ready you look at the bottom of the fruit. If you see a black, shiny eye then it is ready to eat, but if the eye is dull, it's too old.

The seed inside the arrkernke seed-pods falls out and the empty pods are collected to make necklaces for ceremonial decorations. Today people paint them and sell them and give them to friends. The bark is flakey and it's not easy to climb the tree when you want to get the fruit or gall. The flowers are creamy white and hang down in clusters. Birds and small animals, like the bush bee, live in the hollows.

Eastern Arrernte name: arrutnenge

Scientific name: Capparis spinosa var. nummularia

Common name: wild passionfruit

arrutnenge

Uses: edible fruit

When the arrutnenge fruit turns yellow, it is picked, split open and eaten by our people. You never bite the seeds though, because they are bitter! Either spit them out or swallow them. Mid-summer is the best time to eat them. At certain times of the year, like cold weather times, they are too bitter to eat.

arrutnenge

Birds eat them too! They take the fruit away and drop the seeds in their droppings and then they start to grow. They even grow in the hollows of trees because of the birds shifting the seeds from place to place. When we were children we used to pick the fruit green and bury them in the hot sand to get them to ripen up. That way the birds couldn't eat them before you! Ants like them as well.

There is a butterfly that lays its eggs on the leaves, called intelyape-lyape . When the little grubs hatch out they strip the plant of its leaves. Sometimes you just see cocoons hanging all over the plant and heaps of butterflies, but no leaves. The flowers are white and turn a pinky colour as they get older. When they die off, the fruit forms on the end. The plant is very prickly.

arrutnenge

Threats: New growth comes back from the bottom when they get burnt. The strongest ones survive; the ones that are too old get killed off.

Eastern Arrernte name: arrwe-atnulke

Scientific name: Prostanthera striatiflora

Common name: striped mint bush

arrwe-atnulke

Uses: mythology, medicine

Arrwe-atnulke is an important plant to people associated with the rock-wallaby totem. The plant is named after the rock-wallaby because it mainly grows in hills and mountains where these animals live.

Arrwe-atnulke is also used as a medicine. When it's dry the plants lay dormant until it rains again. The leaves are used in a similar way to aherre-intenhe ( Eremophila duttonii) and arrethe ( E. freelingii). They are also crushed and mixed with fat to make a type of Vicks rub to put on the chest. The crushed leaves can also be soaked in water and used as a medicinal wash. This medicine was used for head and chest flus.

Eastern Arrernte name: artetye

Scientific name: Acacia aneura

Common name: mulga

artetye

Uses: mythology, edible seeds, edible apple, sweet lerp scale, honeyant, making tools etc

There are a few different types of artetye – a thin-leaved one, a broad grey-leaved one and others that grow in different areas. People collected ntange (edible seeds) from all artetye varieties, but more commonly from the thin-leaved one. The stems were broken off the tree when the ntange were ready and laid on a clean bit of hard ground. They were then whacked with a stick to break open the pods and let the ntange fall to the ground. The stems were cleared away and the seeds swept up and put in a coolamon and yandied. The clean seeds were ground and made into a paste and eaten raw or cooked. The ntange from wattles, grasses and other plants were all treated this way.

tools used harvesting artetye

The wood of the artetye is used for making urrempere (fighting spears), ilye (boomerangs, including the number seven hunting boomerang), alkwerte (shields), amirre (woomeras), kwetere (nulla-nullas) and also urtne (coolamons). It is also used for making important ceremonial artefacts and is a totem for certain Arrernte people. It was a very useful tree. It's a good, strong wood that doesn't split too easily and is good for cooking too.

You get the ataltyakwerle (mulga apples) mainly on thin leaved variety of artetye . The ataltyakwerle is a gall made by a little grub. The apples have quite a bitter taste when picked so you have to roll them in your hand with clean sand to remove the hair and bitterness. They were picked and eaten straight away because they didn't keep.

The ngkwarle arlperle (sweet honey lerp) is found on the stems of artetye . People either break the stems off the tree and suck the honey from them that way, or soak the stems in water to make a sweet drink. The ngkwarle arlperle is inside a little capsule that breaks open when you suck the honey. When the lerp capsules dry out they break up like jelly crystals.

In certain areas, like up the north road around 16 mile and further north and on the Plenty Highway, you get yerrampe (honey ants) living under the crown of the artetye - where the shade falls, not in the direct sun. People find them by looking for the worker ants. The top part of the soil is scraped away to find the nest of eggs and that's where you start to dig. The yerrampe are stored away in pockets in deeper and deeper layers under the nest of eggs. That's how I was taught to dig yerrampe by an old auntie, when I was a child.

Threats: Fire kills the younger trees. The older trees can sprout back from the base like most bush trees if the fire isn't too hot. Really hot fires can kill the older trees too. They also tend to die off in salty, swampy areas. The changing water table is a problem in some areas.

Eastern Arrernte name: athenge or atyarnpe

Scientific name: Acacia estrophiolata

Common name: ironwood

athenge

Uses: edible seeds, edible sap and witchetty grub in roots, root used for medicine, pituri ash, good cooking wood

People used to eat the ntange (seeds) - in good times the seeds would grow fairly big. They were collected and harvested in a similar way to the mulga seeds.

A flat-headed witchetty grub that lived in the roots was eaten – tyape athengarenye . The edible sap, athengarlperle is found on the limbs of the tree.

athenge

The thin bark of the athenge roots was used as a medicine, similar to arketyerre (dead finish). The root was pounded to remove the bark which was then soaked in water in a small scoop. The liquid was applied to sores and sore eyes or used as mouth wash. These days the bark is boiled up in tins or pots and used in the same way.

Athenge is the best wood to cook with as it makes an even temperature.

Threats: Athenge can sprout back after cooler fires like other bush trees. Too regular or hot fires can kill them off.

Eastern Arrernte name: atnawerte

Scientific name: Pittosporum phylliraeoides

Common name: native apricot

atnawerte

Uses: mythology, medicine (non-Arrernte use)

The atnawerte is an important tree for the Arrernte people and is to be avoided at certain stages of a person's life. Our old people told us that when young women and men were going through puberty, they weren't to approach these trees because this would stop them from developing breasts and growing pubic hair. We weren't even supposed to face the tree because it would stop our development. We called it the ‘pubic tree'. It could have been used for certain types of ceremonies as well. Other people, eg Pitjantjatjarra, used the leaves as a medicine and the sap for bringing on the mother's milk.

atnawerte

The bark is similar to the bloodwood tree and turns fairly white as the tree gets older. These trees only grow here and there – they never grow in a clump like other trees. Maybe they used to be more common and are starting to die out. We would like these trees to be looked after so their story can continue to be passed on.

Eastern Arrernte name: atnyeme

Scientific name: Acacia kempeana

Common name: witchetty bush

atnyeme

Uses: edible grub, edible seeds, ashes for chewing with ingkwerlpe (pituri), digging sticks

The witchetty bush is called atnyeme . The tyape (edible grub) from the roots is called atnyematye . This tyape was a very important food for our people and has an altyerre (dreaming story) associated with it. It was a good source of vitamins for babies and young children and was given to them raw. These days people either eat the grubs raw or cook them in hot ashes. To find them people look for irrarle (cocoons) where some have come out as moths, or for the cracks in the ground around the base of the tree where the roots have swollen. The grubs live inside the roots, eating the wood and hollowing them out. People dig up the root, break it open and pull the tyap e out.

atnyeme

The atnyernatye are more hairy when they're young, like ilwepe (the itchy caterpillars). One mob of people went out digging for them and were only getting little ones. I said to them, “You don't want to eat them! Leave them alone and let them grow first because they're ilwepe-ilwepe – not quite ready?. When they're bigger it's better.

The ntange (edible seeds) were collected green, cooked in hot ash and eaten, or dry and ground into flour.

In the early days the old people would collect the leaves and stems of atnyeme and burn it to make an ash to mix with their ingkwerlpe (pituri). These days people mainly use ankerre arntape (coolabah bark) or the leaves and twigs of athenge (ironwood) to make the ash. The thicker atnyeme branches were also collected and used for atneme (digging sticks), and the leaves and braches used for making ilthe (shelter) and akwintye (wind breaks).

In some areas the trees are getting damaged by cattle and too much fire.

Eastern Arrernte name : atnyere

Scientific name: Ventillago viminalis

Common name: supplejack

atnyere

Uses: ceremony, edible seeds, edible sap, sugarbag, small spears for children,

This is a very important plant to our people. It is a ceremony fire stick tree. The wood is always selected from an old tree, never a young one, and the drier branches are used rather than the green ones. If the wood is too dry it burns too quickly. The older branches are broken off the tree and the bark peeled from them. The wood is slow burning, it just glows and smoulders away - that's why they are used in ceremonies. People travel for miles looking for them. They are still used in ceremonies today.

atnyere

The trees tend to grow like the spear trees when they are young – they twirl around and grow to support each other, around the main small trunk. They are slow growing. The straight young plants used to be collected and made into small spears for the children to practice with. The ntange (edible seeds) were collected, ground and eaten by our people. The gum or sap from the tree is a chewing gum, called atnyerrampe . Children used to eat it but today they prefer lollies.

The wind blows the seeds around and that's how they spread and grow. Small bush bees make their hives in these trees, where there is a hollow in the trunk. The apelkere (crested pigeons) also seem to like them too because they make their nests out of the twigs. People used to eat thipe apelkere .

Threats: Fire kills old trees. If fire burns the tops, they grow back from the bottom like most bush trees, regenerating from down below at ground level. The tree grows back again, but it takes a long time to grow into a big tree. If there are too many fires they can die out. These trees are very important to our people, they only grow in certain areas and they need to be looked after.

Eastern Arrernte name: atwakeye

Scientific name: Capparis mitchellii

Common name: wild orange

atwakeye

Uses: edible fruit

There are a few different varieties of wild oranges around the Alice Springs area, but the atwakeye is the main one that I'm used to. The texture of the atwakeye fruit is similar to an avocado and the colouring is like the mango, but it has lots of small seeds instead of one big one. You can tell when the fruit is ripe by the strong, sweet smell. They were picked and eaten straight off the tree. If there was a lot of fruit, people would take them back to share among family members back at the camp. My mother told me that you never break the fruit open when it's windy because you'll end up with a terrible headache. It must be something like a mould that affects the fruit when the wind blows. Never bite the seeds either, because they are bitter, like the arrutnenge. You don't eat the skin, just the inside.

atwakeye

Eastern Arrernte name: awele-awele, alperrantyeye

Scientific name: Solanum ellipticum

Common name: bush tomato

awele-awele

Uses: edible fruit

When the awele-awele fruit ripens it turns a purple colour and you can smell it from a fair distance. People used to collect them and treat them the same as other fruits to remove the bitterness. They were only available at certain times of the year but were plentiful after rain. They were picked ripe and either eaten raw or cooked. You never let children eat too many because they work like a laxative. They were also picked and eaten when they were drying out.

The plant itself is prickly. People used to lift up the plant and push it over with a stick or their foot to make picking easier and less prickly. They grow anywhere – on flat ground, on the sides of hills and in sand hill country. Grasshoppers like them as well when they're ripe - sometimes you'd pick them and they'd be half eaten already!

There is another plant, called ararnte or irrwarlpe that grows on small hills amongst spinifex. It is more of a low-lying plant. The fruit turns a yellow colour and when ripe is collected, cleaned and eaten raw. It was eaten as much as the awele-awele in the early days, but there doesn't seem to be as many around anymore and the young people don't know about it.

Eastern Arrernte name: aywerte, atyurrempe

Scientific name: Triodia longiceps and T. pungens

Common name: bull spinifex

aywerte

Uses: cement, building, edible seeds

The resin from atyurrempe was collected to make a glue for affixing spear heads, womera points, stone knives and axes. It was also used to fix other broken or cracked implements. The resin, called ankere, is only present on the plants at certain times of the year. To remove it, the plant is placed near the fire to warm and then pounded with a rock. The ankere is then scraped up with a stick and formed into a ball. When needed, it is melted and poured onto the weapon or implement.

Aywerte was used for making walls and rooves of ilthe (shelters). The grey, dead clumps of aywerte were mainly collected for this purpose.

aywerte

The seeds of spinifex grasses were collected and eaten in hard times. They were ground and eaten as a paste or cooked.

Animals like little bush mice, lizards, snakes and insects live under the aywrete . This plant mainly grows on urrthe (limestone) country and occurs throughout the MacDonnell Ranges.

Eastern Arrernte name: ayepe

Scientific name: Boerhavia spp .

Common name: tar vine

ayepe

Uses: edible caterpillar lives on the plant, edible roots

An edible caterpillar, the ayeparenye lives on the ayepe vine. The ayeparenye is an extremely important ancestral being for the Arrernte people of Alice Springs . The sites associated with them are mainly on the eastern side of town at Anthwerrke (Emily Gap). The name for Emily Gap comes from the guts of the ayeparenye, and the other tyape , that splattered everywhere when the arlparenye (stink beetle) chopped their heads off.

ayepe

The ayeparenye eats the leaves of the ayepe vine and pupates underground beneath it. When they have undergone irrirle (metamorphosis) and come out as moths, they lay their eggs on the leaves of the ayepe . The grubs hatch out and feed off the leaves and the cycle continues. The ayeparenye was an important source of food for our people before shop food. They were collected in big numbers and gutted ( werlaneme) and cooked the same way as the utenerrangatye and ntyarlke , according to the Law. The body of the grub is cooked in the hot ash and eaten – they go crispy like hot chips. I f you collected too many to eat, you stored them away for later use because the ayeparenye aren't around during rain time.

The ayepartekerre (roots of the ayepe vine) were also eaten. The main tap root was dug up, cooked and eaten, or just eaten raw.

Threats: There aren't as many ayepe vines growing as there used to be – they used to grow on the river banks, the river flats and in the river beds themselves – everywhere. Now you mainly see them only in the river bed and in people's gardens where it's more protected. They may be becoming endangered because of foreign grasses out-growing them. Climate change, fire and hard footed animals could also be affecting them. Lyekemerne , the strangler vine might also be a problem for them.

Eastern Arrernte name: ilperle

Scientific name: Melaleuca glomerata

Common name: tea tree

ilperle

Uses: building, lining coolamon

The ilperle mainly grows in river beds and in the early days a lot of alangkwe (bush bananas) used to grow on them. The foliage was used for building ilthe and akwintye and for making things like irrertetye (walking sticks) and atneme (digging sticks) because the wood is straight. It's a good strong wood and the stems were cut and used as the frame for the ilthe . The paper bark was used to line the inside of the child's urtne (coolamon) because it's soft. They used this before cloth materials were available.

The alangkwe (bush banana vines) seem to like growing on them in the creeks and gullies .

Eastern Arrernte name: ilpeye

Scientific name: Hakea leucoptera

Common name: needle bush

ilpeye

Uses: building, making digging sticks, walking sticks etc

The branches of ilpeye were used to make ilthe (shelters) and akwintye (wind breaks) and also atneme (digging sticks) and irrertetye (walking sticks). They often grow in small creeks and indicate the presence of ground water. People used to look for these sorts of trees when they were travelling and would dig under them to find water.

ilpeye

The Ilpeye - Ilpeye camp is named after this tree. The original Ilpeye-Ilpeye site was located where Centralian College is now. There was an angentye (soak) here that people used to camp at, but it was destroyed by the town development.

Eastern Arrernte name: ilwempe

Scientific name: Corymbia apperentye

Common name: ghost gum

ilwempe

Uses: mythology, sap used a medicine, edible manner

The ilwempe is a significant tree to the Arrernte people and certain trees have an altyerre associated with them. They are considered to be like a ghost, aleparentye because of their white bark. You can see the trees from a fair distance growing on the hills. A related one grows on the sides of river banks, but it is bigger and has more of a pink tinge than the hill one.

ilwempe

The sap was used as a medicine for sores and boils and as a mouthwash, similar to the arrkernke (bloodwood) sap. The sap from the ilwempe is a lot redder than the arrkernke sap. The trees are home to birds and other animals, including carpet snakes.

Eastern Arrernte name: ingkwerrpme, amare

Scientific name: Amyema/Lysiana spp.

Common name: mistletoes

ingkwerrpme

Uses: edible fruit

The fruit of ingkwerrpme is collected and eaten, mainly by children but adults eat it too. The fruits are red, orange, purple, black or yellow when ripe. The flesh of the fruit is really slimy and sticks to the roof of your mouth – the kids call them snotty gobbles! Emus like to eat them and other birds as well. Ingkwerrpme tend to grow on aherre-intenhe (red poverty bush) and sometimes on arlketyerre (dead finish) and other trees.

ingkwerrpme

The grey mistletoe is called amare . They grow on any type of tree, but not eucalypts. The fruit is a yellow colour when it ripens. It has a harder skin than ingkwerrpm e. Other kinds of mistletoes grow on eucalypts and even mallee trees.

A lot of the ingkwerrpme mistletoe grows near Yam creek on the Santa Teresa Land Trust. My uncle once told us a funny story about an emu and this plant. The emu had its head stuck in a tree eating from the mistletoe and my uncle snuck up behind it and jumped on its back. The emu took off, jumping, kicking, twisting and turning, trying to throw him off. He was holding onto the long feathers as tight as he could but eventually he fell off. The emu was really angry and ran back towards him to try and peck him. My uncle was lying on the ground. He got up and hid behind a tree and the emu ran past!

Eastern Arrernte name: irlweke

Scientific name: Callitris glaucophylla

Common name: native pine

irlweke

Uses: mythology, medicine, sap used as cement

Irlweke is a significant tree and an important medicine for our people. The bark from larger trees was used for high fever. It was peeled from the tree and laid on the ground and the sick person was wrapped up in it. They lay in there to sweat out the fever – it was similar to a sauna. The sap in the bark is what healed the fever by infusing through the pores of the person's skin. The bark could also be wrapped around a limb (arm or leg) and tied on to stop aching bones. My mother once wrapped and tied the bark around my arm that I had hurt when I fell over. I felt the arm starting to come good in a little while, but she told me to leave it on for a bit longer. When we took it off, my arm felt really good!

irlweke

The leaves were used for medicine as well. The sap from the pine was used to make a medicinal wash for sores. It was also mixed with kangaroo or euro dung to make a cement for affixing spear heads and womera points or to repair cracked shields, coolamons and other implements.

Irlweke grows on hill and mountains and in small gullies and river beds. They are susceptible to ure (fire) and mostly get killed off by it. They grow in protected parts of the ranges and in sheltered gullies.

Eastern Arrernte name: ltyentye

Scientific name: Grevillea striata

Common name: Beefwood

ltyentye

Uses: sap used for cement, medicine

The sap from ltyentye was mixed with kangaroo dung to make a cement for fixing spear heads and womera points. Kangaroo sinew was chewed for a while and then wrapped around the spear head to secure it. The cement was also used to repair cracked shields. The ltyentye sap was also used as a medicine. It was soaked in water and used as a wash for sores – any type of sores.

ltyentye

This tree is one of the main trees that the iwepe (itchy grub) makes its irrkentehe (nest) in, along with the bloodwood and coolibah. Occasionally you see them on other trees too. The itchy grub nests are white when they are new and turn a pinky colour when they are older. These nests are used as a bandage to treat burns (see emu bush for details).

People used to say that if there was a long line of iwepe grubs travelling along, it tells you that there will be a long winter, but if it's a short line, it will be a short winter. They are a prediction of the weather so they should not be disturbed. Never touch the grubs; they make you really itchy, also the dung.

Threats: The ltyentye is susceptible to being killed by fire. In some areas, such as at Emily Gap, patches of big trees have been killed off.

Eastern Arrernte name: pintye-pintye

Scientific name: Stemodia viscosa and Pterocaulon serrulatum

Common name: sticky blue-rod and apple bush

pintye-pintye

There are two kinds of pintye-pintye. These plants grow mainly where water lies for a long time, waterholes, swamps and rock holes. They have a very strong smell and were both used as a medicine for head flus and headaches. If you couldn't breathe properly during the nigh because of chest complaints, people would collect it and make pillows out of it - you'd sleep on the pillow and inhale the smell. People would also burn the leaves of pintye-pintye and inhale the smoke to clear their heads. S ometimes the plants were stored inside the humpy to let out the odour and to help people sleep OK.

pintye-pintye

Eastern Arrernte name: tunpere

Scientific name: Enteropogon acicularis, E. ramosus and Aristida sp.

Common name: curly windmill grass, wire grass

tunpere

Uses: pulling witchetty grubs out of tree trunks and roots

These grassed are used to make a tunpere (hook) to pull tyape from the trunk and roots of the apere (river red gum), called ingwenenge, and angkerre (coolibah), called angkerrutne . We call the grasses name tunpere. If you couldn't find these grasses when you need them, you could also use a thin branch of the gum tree. Nowadays people mostly use wire to make the hook. To get the tyape out, you break the bark and open the witchetty hole up, then stick the tunpere up into the hole and hook onto the tyape and pull it out. If the tyape resists too much, the tunpure can break so you need to make a new one. That's how we were taught to pull witchetties out of the red river gum or coolibah trees.

tunpere

Name tunpere grows in the creeks, river beds or swampy areas.

We call the seeds of the tunpere grass intwerrkere . When we were young and used to go for a billy can of water, these seeds would sometimes fall in. You had to be careful when you drank the water because the seeds could get lodged in your throat, like an arrow, and you can end up with a sore throat. Our people used to say that these seeds were dangerous.

Threats: These grasses used to grow everywhere but you don't see very many around anymore. Buffel grass has taken over a lot of the creeks and cattle might have eaten and trampled them too much. The seeds could have been trampled by cattle too. Maybe fire is a problem as well - the hotter fires from buffel grass might be killing off the seeds. They don't seem to regenerate anymore because of all of these problems.

Eastern Arrernte name: Ulyawe or ngkwetyeke

Scientific name: Portulaca olearacea

Common name: pigweed

ulyawe

Uses: mythology, edible caterpillar, edible seeds and root

The ntyarlke (elephant grub) lives on the ulyawe plant. This is one of the three caterpillars that represent the dreamings of Alice Springs . These days you find ntyarlke living on grapevines – even the caterpillars have started to eat the imported foods! They go underground for irrarle (metamorphsis). These tyape were gutted, cooked and eaten the same way as the other two important tyape , according to the Law (see ayeparenye under ayepe ).

ulyawe

The seeds of ulyawe were collected, ground and eaten as a paste or made into small cakes and cooked. The roots were also dug up and eaten, mainly by children but adults also ate them too when times were hard. Their texture and taste is similar to a young potato. The leaves and stems are watery - they were used by people to soften up sores, and may have even had healing properties.

You mainly see ulyawe after rain when they come up quite thick, or even in people's gardens. They grow bigger in areas where there is soft soil.

Eastern Arrernte name: untyeye

Scientific name: Hakea spp.

Common name: corkwood

untyeye

Uses: mythology, medicine, honey

Unytyeye is a significant tree for certain Arrernte people and has an altyerre (dreaming story) associated with it.

The flower from untyeye is called untyeyampe, both the long-leaved and short-leaved corkwoods. People pick the flowers and suck the honey from it or tap the flower onto their hands and lick the honey off their hand. Sometimes people used to pick the flower and put it in water to make a sweet drink like cordial. The flower honey starts off a red colour and as it gets older it gets darker, almost purple/black. Ants and birds like the honey too, birds get drunk when they eat too much honey, especially when they drink honey that has fermented.

untyeye

Untyeye bark was used as medicine for heat rash, weeping sores, cracked nipples and for babies with a sore mouth from sucking on their mother's breast. When the tree is older, the bark is pretty thick and easily broken off. The bark is burnt and the coal ground up. The black powder is then mixed with fat or water or just sprinkled on as a powder.

untyeye

When they are young they are more tolerant to fire, more so than the older ones - they seem to get burnt down.

Eastern Arrernte name: utnerrenge

Scientific name: Eremophila longifolia

Common name: emu bush

utnerrenge

Uses: medicine, edible caterpillar, smoking mother and babies, ceremonies

The tyape utenerrengatye (caterpillar) lives on the leaves of this plant and is a source of food for our people. They feed off the leaves and strip the plant. This caterpillar is an important totem to the Alice Springs area. There are three important caterpillars – the utenerrengatye, ayeparenye and ntyarlke - and the stories of these caterpillars represent the dreaming of Alice Springs . The ayeparenye lives on the ayepe (tar vine) and the ntyarlke lives on the ulyawe (pigweed), though you mainly find it on grapevines these days.

>utenerrengatye

The utnerrenge trees used to be completely covered with the utenerrengatye at certain times of the year. These caterpillars have a peculiar habit of all dropping off the tree at the same time if one of them is touched. People used to dig a ring around the base of the tree, then touch one of the grubs and they'd all fall in. The utenerrengatye were then collected in a coolamon. A hole was dug and the guts were squeezed into this and buried. This gutting process is called werlaneme and it had to be done according to the Law because these tyape were very sacred to this area and the Arrernte people.

You hardly see the utenerrengatye around anymore unless you travel a fair distance out bush. I haven't seen them for years. Maybe they have died out because of cattle and other hard-footed animals trampling them because they cocoon underground. They may have just died out because of climate changes. You used to be able to see them everywhere at certain times of the year.

The leaves of the utnerrenge bush were used to smoke mothers and babies after birth to make them strong and well and to help the child to grow up strong and healthy. When Measles came in and people didn't know what it was, they used utnerrenge to smoke the children and this helped them to get well. Apmere (houses or camps) are also smoked with the leaves of this plant and this helps to send the spirit of the deceased person back to where it originated from. If you don't smoke the area the spirit will always be there and will be lost. That's why this plant is very significant for smoking.

The leaves were collected and ground and the juice was used to apply onto sores and bad burns. It helps to dry out the sores. If people were burnt, the iwepe yakwethe (itchy grub's nest) was cleaned out and the bag was unwrapped and put on the bad burn - it was like a skin graft. The leaf juice from utnerrenge was applied onto the itchy grub bag covering the burn.

Threats: They tend to get burnt off but they still sprout up from the original one, as long as there aren't too many fires.

Eastern Arrernte name: utyerrke

Scientific name: Ficus platypoda

Common name: bush fig

utyerrke

Uses: mythology, edible fruit, leaves used in sand story telling

Utyerrke was a very important food for our people and has an altyerre (dreaming story) associated with it. The merne utyerrke (edible fruit) was one of the favourite foods for our people. They were eaten fresh, straight off the tree, or dry. People collected the dry ones from under the tree and ground them into a paste. The paste was either cooked or left to dry into a biscuit.

The utyerrke irlpelhe (leaves) were used to represent people in stories told in the sand. The stories were about real life events or moral stories. A branch of the fig tree was stripped of its leaves and used as the story-telling stick, called a mane-mane . This was the traditional way of telling stories and handing down knowledge to one another. It was mainly women and girls that used this method of story-telling. Later on people used wire or lead from batteries melted and shaped into mane-mane .

utyerrke

Utyerrke grow anywhere on the hills or mountains. The tree has a watery bulb under the ground like a carrot that helps it to survive the dry times and cooler fires. They can re-sprout from the bottom like most bush trees, if they are old enough. Too many hot fires can kill them off. They lay dormant in dry times and sprout out again when rain comes. They are prone to being damaged by fire, especially with a lot of buffel grass growing around their base.

Eastern Arrernte name: uyenpere

Scientific name: Pandorea doratoxylon

Common name: spear bush

uyenpere

Uses: significant totem tree, wood used for hunting spears,

The uyenpere is a very significant tree for Arrernte men. The straight, long branches were selected to make spears for hunting big game animals like kangaroos, euros, emus and wallabies. To make the spear, the branches were passed through hot ash and sand, first to remove the bark and then to straighten the spear and harden the wood. Pressure was applied directly or the spear was levered in the fork of a tree and held until it cooled. It took a long time to get the spear straight enough and they worked on it continually until they were satisfied with the result.

uyenpere

The uyenpere seed pods look similar to bush banana fruits when they are young. They grow in amongst the rocks on the sides of hills and mountains and the seeds get caught in the crevices and grow there. The seed pods look like little boats when they open out.

Threats: Too much fire can kill them off. Once a fire has gone through they don't tend to grow back.

Eastern Arrernte name: yalke, irreyakwerre

Scientific name: Cyperus bulbosus

Common name: bush onion

yalke

Uses: mythology, edible bulb

This plant is very significant to certain people who own the dreaming and totem to it. Because of its significance, it had to be treated the proper way. The onions couldn't be dug up with a stick or crow bar, but had to collected according to the Law. When the top of the plant died off in the winter time, the onions were ready to be collected. The ground was pounded with a rock in an arc shape and then systematically dug by hand from one side to other. This was similar to ploughing and preparing the ground for the next crop. Not all of the yalke was collected. The birds and little mice came along afterwards to take their share, but even then there was enough onions left to grow back after the next rain. That's how it was always done with the old people, even when I was a child. The people that owned the totem would get really angry if it wasn't done properly. People cared that there was always something left behind for the plants to regenerate. That's how I interpreted it when it was done in that way.

yalke

The onions were cooked in the hot sand near the fire. They were eaten raw too, but not too many. People didn't use to give the raw ones to babies, they had to be cooked and peeled properly or they would get gastric.

Threats: Yalke used to grow everywhere, mainly on sides of river banks, but also in sandhill country on the edge of the claypans. These days a lot of it has been taken over by the buffel and couch grass and cattle have killed them off too. Wherever you went there used to be yalke growing along the sides of river banks - Emily Gap, Jessie Gap, Ross River , Arltunga, Yam Creek near Santa Teresa, everywhere. They normally like growing where the soil is soft. I remember when my mum was alive we used to collect billy cans full of yalke at Mt Benstead. There might be still some here and there. They used to grow down in the Todd River near the farms too, but they have been taken over by the buffel grass and killed by people driving over them. Some used to grow up higher along the river banks but they were not as big as the ones growing in the soft soil. Animals like birds and little mice used to feed off the yalke . Yalke was good for bilbies and spinifex mice too. The Arrernte name for bilby is Aherte . There used to be aherte around here when I was young and travelled around with my family, but you don't see them anymore. Arrernte people are concerned about the loss of yalke from their country. They would like to still be able to go out and eat these foods and also show them to their children and grandchildren, but some of them have disappeared now.