The taste is tart and tangy, and sweetness varies greatly between trees. The flesh of the quandong is suited to many culinary purposes such as sauces, jams, and now coffee. Quandong is also known as desert peach or wild peach. The Quandong tree is a hemi-parasitic, attaching itself to the roots of another tree or wild plants to extract water and nutrients.

The oil rich kernel (nut) is also edible. It was an important native food source for indigenous Australians across Australia with surplus fruit collected and dried in the sun for later consumption. Quandongs were considered a suitable substitute for meat.