Strawberry Tree

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Strawberry Tree

The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo L.) is an evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
or small tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
Ericaceae

Ericaceae

The plant family Ericaceae are mostly calcium oxide-hating plants that thrive in acid soils. Many well-known plants of the Ericaceae live in temperate climates, such as cranberry, blueberry, Erica, Calluna vulgaris, huckleberry, azalea and rhododendron....
, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
north to western France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
. Due to its presence in South West Ireland, it is also known as Irish strawberry tree, and Killarney

Killarney

Killarney is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Republic of Ireland. The town is located north of the MacGillicuddy Reeks, on the northeastern shore of the Lakes of Killarney which are part of Killarney National Park....
strawberry tree. Despite its name, the strawberry tree does not produce strawberries.
Strawberry Tree grows to 5-10 m tall, rarely up to 15 m, with a trunk diameter of up to 80 cm.

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Description

The Strawberry Tree grows to 5-10 m tall, rarely up to 15 m, with a trunk diameter of up to 80 cm. Zone: 7-10

The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are dark green and glossy, 5-10 cm long and 2-3 cm broad, with a serrated margin.

The hermaphrodite

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are white (rarely pale pink), bell-shaped, 4-6 mm diameter, produced panicles of 10-30 together in autumn. They are pollinated by bees.

The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is a red aggregate drupe 1-2 cm diameter, sometimes called arbutus-berry, with a rough surface, maturing 12 months at the same time as the next flowering. The fruit is edible, though many people find it bland and mealy; the name 'unedo' is explained by Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
as being derived from unum edo "I eat one", which may seem an apt response to the flavour. They mainly serve as food for bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s but in some countries they are used to make jam and liqueur

Liqueur

A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, Nut , spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry....
s (such as the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
medronho, a kind of strong brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a distilled_beverage produced by Distillation wine, the wine having first been produced by Fermentation grapes. Brandy contains 36%?60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink....
).

Cultivation and uses

Unlike most of the Ericaceae, it grows well in limy soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
s. It is best planted in a sheltered position due to its late flowering habit (see first paragraph). When grown as a tree rather than a multi-stemmed shrub, it is important to select one stem that becomes the main trunk, keeping any other basal sprouts pruned off. It prefers well-drained soil and only moderate amounts of water. The Strawberry Tree is naturally adapted to dry summers, though also growing well in the cool, wet summers of western Ireland. It is therefore useful for planting in areas with a dry-summer climate, and has become a very popular garden specimen in California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
and the rest of the west coast of North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. It is hardy in USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive departments responsible for developing and executing Federal government of the United States policy on farming, agriculture, and food....
Hardiness Zones

Hardiness zone

A hardiness zone is shown on the scale to our right; or usually shown on a map . These zones show a geographically-defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including it's ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone....
8 to 10. Pests include Scales

Scale insect

The scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, generally classified as the superfamily Coccoidea. There are about 8,000 species of scale insects....
and Thrips

Thrips

Thrips are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings . Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, and corn lice....
, and diseases include anthracnose, Phytophthora
Phytophthora

Phytophthora is a genus of plant-damaging Protists of the Water mould . Anton de Bary described it for the first time in 1875....
, root rot, and rust

Rust (fungus)

Rusts are fungi of the order Uredinales. Many of these species are plant parasites. Some are superficially similar to the smut , although their relation to each other is not clear....
.

Synonyms include Unedo edulis Hoffm. and Arbutus vulgaris Bub.

Symbolic use

The title of The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the Early Netherlandish painting master Hieronymus Bosch , housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939....
, a mysterious painting by Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painting Painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The artist's work is well-known for the use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives....
, is a later attribution. It was listed in the inventories of the Spanish Crown as "the picture with the strawberry-tree fruits".

Strawberry Tree

Description

Cultivation and uses

Symbolic use

External links