Of the 250,000 species of flowering plants on earth, only 150 to 200 are cultivated by humans, and according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation, just three of them — rice, maize and wheat — generate 60 per cent of the world's food.

It is a stark contrast to the estimated 5,000 different bushfood plant species that Indigenous Australians once utilised and seasonally harvested.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 6 minutes 1 second 6 m A Big Country: Putting bushfoods on the table ( Jennifer Nichols ) Download 2.8 MB

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 52 seconds 5 m Witjuti Grub nursery owner Veronica Cougan discusses her passion for native bushfoods. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols ) Download 2.7 MB

But on a property bordering the rainforest in the Sunshine Coast hinterland's Obi Obi valley, Veronica Cougan is aiming to raise awareness of forgotten native foods — the amazing trees, fruits and flavours we have in our own backyard.

Native sea celery is also known as native parsley, and grows wild across coastal areas in Australia's southern states. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"We just haven't given them enough attention yet and a lot of people just don't know what they are, so I don't think they're game to buy it and they don't know what they're buying," Ms Cougan said.

"But a lot of chefs are now starting to pick up on the bushfoods, and once people have tried something made by somebody, professional or amateur, they love it."

Ms Cougan owns and operates Witjuti Grub Bushfood Nursery with her partner Roy McKenzie, and serves up delicious wild jam made from Davidson plums, plum pine and lilly pilly fruit.

"Davidson plums are a lovely big fruit," Ms Cougan said.

"A big golf ball-sized fruit, full of a deep red beautiful-looking flesh and just two slender seeds in that, so most of that is useable flesh.

The flower of the Davidson's plum is popular with native plant enthusiasts and can grow up to 10 metres tall. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"There are two varieties: the north Queensland variety fruits in autumn with great big hanging bunches, like giant bunches of grapes.

"We've heard of trees that produce up to 40 kilograms of fruit and they're a tall slender tree like a tree fern or a palm in growth habit.

"Then there's the New South Wales Davidson plum, which occurs just on the border with Queensland.

"It actually fruits in summer and you get these lovely pink flowers on the trunk, followed by plums up and down the trunk."

Ms Cougan was enrolled in a horticulture course 19 years ago when she met Graham White, the current president of the Queensland Bushfood Association.

Now she cultivates up to 25 different species of native trees, shrubs, vines and herbs in her nursery, propagating by seed and cuttings — collecting, breeding and using grafts to achieve superior fruiting qualities.

Root stock is grafted with wildly popular native finger limes. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"We're still a small specialist nursery but the lines that we've got now are better fruiting trees," she said.

"Everybody loves finger limes and why wouldn't they? They're just incredible — the range of colours, the little balls of citrus caviar, they're so versatile — we can't keep up with the demand.

"They're a small tree that can fit into anybody's yard, and you can keep the grafted varieties in a pot on your deck and they'll fruit really well for you as long as you feed them occasionally and water them."

Forgotten bush flavours

When explorer Thomas Petrie first arrived on the Sunshine Coast there was a vibrant Indigenous community, but European settlement led to significant displacement of the local Aboriginal people.

The strongly aromatic native thyme was used by Indigenous Australians for its medicinal qualities, and has an earthy, minty flavour. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"I think with the people up in North Queensland that still live closer to the land, they have still got a lot of information they could share," Ms Cougan said.

"A lot of the local information has been lost.

"I'd really love the bushfoods to come into everybody's awareness and to be used every day by everyday people.

"I think it's right under our noses and the flavours are amazing."

Finger limes are bursting with tiny balls of citrus and come in a variety of colours. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Ms Cougan broke open a finger lime that erupted with small balls of citrus juice.

"This variety is pink inside, that one there is green skin and green inside. You can get yellow skin with yellow inside, and the one we're excited about at the moment has deep red balls of citrus and it's just beautiful."

"The native bees come over to them as well and its thorns provide a really great protected site for the little finches and wrens to come and nest in.

"We've had up to four active nests at one time in this tree here. It gives them shelter from birds of prey and pythons."

The thorns of the native finger lime trees also provide a safe haven for nesting wrens and finches. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"Our local pepper is a beautiful vine with a lovely heart-shaped leaf and you get beautiful clusters of red berries, which turn black when they're dried out and get all crinkly like peppercorns and away you go, just chuck it in your pepper grinder.

"Lemon myrtle is probably up there with finger limes. Everybody I think is familiar with lemon myrtle now: they've tried it in food or cosmetics, and once again it's something that can fit into anybody's yard.

"It's a tree that you can keep pruned to any size, and being a foliage plant it grows in a pot too if you want to use it for that.

The native pepper vine is an attractive plant that produces red berries that can be dried and crushed just like ordinary cultivated pepper varieties. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"The warrigal greens is a rambling ground cover that gets a lot of seeds, so when your warrigal greens die back, the seeds drop all around them and with the next rain or decent watering, you'll get a whole lot of new warrigal greens coming up again.

"Use it just like you would use spinach — take the new growth tips — and it's easy to grow in the garden or in a pot.

"A lot of people have either got or have had native violets in their garden, but most of them don't realise that it has an edible leaf and also an edible flower, so that beautiful little flower there just makes a gorgeous garnish.

The native violet is more than just a pretty groundcover. It also produces edible flowers and leaves. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"The curry myrtle is an inland plant and it's got a real sort of curry eucalyptus smell, great in dukkhas and seasonings as well.

"This one's called the native thyme and it's a real earthy minty flavour, beautiful dried, and as you can see it's a lovely little shrub that's becoming really popular."