Cheese Fruit Tree

Cheese Fruit is an attractive shade tree with large glossy leaves and is well suited to the Townsville environment. It is found in coastal Queensland, Northern Territory and extends through to Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and India. Perhaps its other common names give some hint as to why it is not more popular in horticulture: "Rotten Cheese Fruit" or "Vomit Fruit". There can be no doubt that the odour of the fruit is pretty unpleasant.

The fruit is actually a compound structure which is particularly evident when you see it flowering. Each individual segment of the fruit has its own small white flower. The fruit are a lumpy warty mass, green initially and then turning a translucent green-white when fully ripe.
It is at this stage that the fruit small particularly strong. The reason for the strong smell is to attract Fruit Bats to disperse the fruit. Along the windswept beach fronts in which it grows, a very strong scent is needed to attract the attention of the bats. One critic has described the smell as being reminiscent of a strong Roquefort cheese after soaking in a urinal.