The Queensland Umbrella Tree is sometimes known as the “Octopus Tree” because of its often nearly 3-foot-long stems that radiate upwards and outwards away from the its very large umbrella-like compound leaves. This puts the clusters of flowers and resulting fruit of the plant along each stem into the open – facilitating pollination of the tiny red flowers and easy access to the clusters of small purple fruit for birds that eat it and spread the seeds.
Squirrels also eat the fruit but must do so only while perched near the base of the fruit laden stems. A squirrel’s (or Pileated Woodpecker’s) weight near the tip of a fruit laden stem often causes the stem (and the squirrel) to fall!
While many species of native birds eat the fruit of the Queensland Umbrella Tree, the major consumer and culprit that spreads the seeds is the European Starling. Starlings arrive at the plant in small flocks and return often. They then often go to nearby cabbage palms and consume native wild grapes that regularly grow in the palms. While eating grapes, they also defecate seeds from the fruit of the umbrella tree. Those seeds often fall into the base of lower palm fronts – where they germinate and a new Queensland Tree begins to grow. Eventually the fast-growing Queensland tree’s roots reach the ground its umbrella-like leaves shade the palm, often killing it. Such is a common saga! The seeds of the exotic-invasive Queensland Umbrella Tree – native to Australia – are dispersed widely by the exotic-invasive European Starling – native to Eurasia.