Arbutus unedo L.
strawberry tree
Shrub or small tree with fissured bark (to c. 10 m high in cultivation). Young shoots glandular-hairy. Lvs glabrous, with very short petioles. Lamina 4.5-9 × 2-3.5 cm, a little larger on vegetative shoots, elliptic to obovate, crenate-serrate to serrate, sometimes almost entire on flowering shoots; base cuneate; apex usually obtuse. Panicle usually 4-6 cm long; peduncles and pedicels glabrous or puberulent. Bracts ovate to lanceolate, conspicuous and often tinged reddish, < or > pedicels. Calyx 2-3 mm long, often reddish; lobes broad, ciliate, obtuse. Corolla tube 7-8 mm long, white or pinkish, hairy towards apex; lobes broad, c. 1 mm long. Filaments villous; anther awns aristate, curved. Style shortly exserted. Fr. 1.5-2 cm diam., globose, orange-red or scarlet, with conic papillae giving a warty appearance.
N.; S.
Mediterranean, W. Europe 1958
Established in Leptospermum scrub near Upper Hutt, occasional in street gutters outside gardens and in modified scrub or plantations near settlements, especially in eastern areas.
FL Feb-Aug.
Strawberry tree is widely cultivated and the conspicuous frs are favoured by birds.
