Strawberry Tree
Arbutus unedo · Ericaceae · 우네도딸기나무
How to spot it
Identified by peeling bark, red twigs, glossy toothed leaves, and flowers and strawberry-like fruit appearing together in fall.
Look
- Leaves
- Glossy green leaves 5 to 10 cm long with toothed margins; the petioles and young twigs are red.
- Flowers
- In fall, small white (occasionally pale pink) urn-shaped flowers with a faint fragrance bloom in drooping panicles of 10 to 30.
- Fruit
- Red berries 1.3 to 2.5 cm across with a bumpy surface ripen in fall, while flowers are on the tree at the same time.
- Bark
- Gray-brown bark peels dramatically, revealing reddish-brown inner bark.
Where it grows
- Native to
- A Mediterranean species native to Europe (Mediterranean region), western Asia and North Africa.
- Ecology
- Flowers are a nectar source for pollinating insects, the fruit feeds birds and small mammals, and deer eat the leaves.