Diospyros mabacea Diospyros mabacea Diospyros mabacea, the red-fruited ebony is a rare rainforest tree in the ebony or persimmon family growing in north eastern New South Wales. Listed as endangered by extinction. Found at only thirteen sites in sub tropical rainforest near Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby (28° S), growing at low altutide. The original habitat is mostly destroyed by land clearing and housing. The current populations are threatened by invasive plants, particularly vines. Cattle trample over seedlings in private property. Not recorded in the nearby Gold Coast, however, it is possible that it once grew there before the extensive urban development in the
Black pepper pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant). Marco Polo testifies to pepper's popularity in 13th-century China, when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Hangzhou): "... Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs." Marco Polo is not considered a very reliable source regarding China, and these second-hand data may be even more suspect, but if this estimated a day