mungiten.
/ˈmʌŋɡʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈməŋˌɡaɪt/, Australian English /ˈmʌŋɡɑet/ Australian.
The cylindrical flowering spike, rich in nectar, of shrubs of the genus Banksia, which dries to a woody cone. Also: the plant itself.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > shrubs > non-British shrubs > [noun] > Australasian
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c1837 H. W. Bunbury Early Days W. Austral. (1930) iii. 80 At this season food was plentiful—both fish..and ‘Munghites’ as they call the flower of Banksia, from which they extract by suction a delicious juice resembling a mixture of honey and dew.
1849 J. S. Roe Rep. Exped. S.-eastward Perth 44 We felt another stage had been accomplished in our journey by the appearance of the ‘Mūngart’, or honey-bearing Banksia, so prized by natives during its flowering season.
1916 E. Grew & M. S. Grew Rambles in Austral. 17 The Banksia..looked as if a fir-cone had suddenly burst into bristling pink flowers; the hard cone of it is called by the natives a ‘mungite’, and is used to kindle fire.
1948 H. A. Lindsay Bushman's Handbk. 79 It's a simple job if you can get the big banksia cones (mungites).
1979 E. Smith Saddle in Kitchen 26 Grandpa had strange names for some things too—native names many of them. Banksias he called what sounded like ‘mungites’, though I've never heard the term used by anyone else.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1837