Common name: Nardoo Family name: Marsileaceae Botanical name: Marsilea drummondii Flowering/fruiting season: Dry seasons Location: Lowland swamps; on low tablelands only Use: Food Starchy spore cases ground and baked (Flood, 1980) The Aborigines ground them between two stones and removed the black husks to leave a yellow starchy powder which could be made into cakes (Cribb & Cribb, 1987:83) Stand-by food only (Smyth in Gott, 1995)

Notes:

• Kind of fern; 'seeds' are spores in spore-case.
• Nardoo made famous through the story of the deaths of explorers Burke & Wills who perished maybe not knowing how to prepare the seeds (Gott, 1995)

Language names:

• dullum-dullum: jerinyuk (spore case): Wemba wemba, Lake Boga, Vic.
• dthang garang : Wiradjuri, NSW (Gott. 1995)

Horticulture :
Plant in shallow water (Wrigley & Fagg, 1998:212)

Similar species:
M. mutica

Use code:
SEED

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