You may have read the words ‘strawberry tree’ on this page and thought ‘I know this one! – bright red tasty berries that I eat on those long summer days dipped in cream! Unfortunately that’s not the one, but the good news is you can grow those in your garden as well!
This article is about another plant. It still has red berries, but these ones are a rounded shape and apparently not as tasty. The tree reaches heights of between 5 – 10 metres with light brown, reddish coloured bark. The leaves are dark green in an oval pointed shape. It also has small white flowers resembling heather ones
Latin name: Arbutus unedo
Overview
The Strawberry tree is an evergreen tree which flowers and fruits at the same time. This is because the fruit takes 12 months to fully mature, which is in autumn. The flowers which are both male and female also appear during late autumn and early winter. These become of great interest to bees.
In the Garden
Even though the berries may not taste so great to us they do to wildlife. This because of the late fruiting and flowering of the tree. It provides food and nectar for blackbirds (Turdus merula), waxwings (Bombycilla garrulous), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) butterflies and bees during the colder months.
This is a really interesting tree to go for in a garden. It’s slow growing, small and provides colour when other trees do not. Being evergreen means you can have leaves all year round without having to go for a conifer style.
So why not have strawberries all year round. The summer variety for you, and the winter ones for the wildlife in your garden.
Did you know?
- In Portugal they make a brandy out of the berries called medronho.