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Arbutus unedo
Also called Irish Strawberry Tree, Killarney Strawberry Tree, Arbutus, Western Strawberry Tree
Arbutus unedo is an evergreen shrub or small tree, native to the Mediterranean and grown for its glossy leaves, autumn flowers and red berries. It is easy to grow once established, and its fruit production varies with the weather.
Arbutus unedo, commonly known as strawberry-tree, or strawberry tree, also called madroño in Spanish, is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Western Europe. The tree is well known for its fruit, the arbutus berry, which bears some resemblance to the strawberry, hence the common name strawberry-tree. However, it is not closely related to true strawberries of the genus Fragaria.
Its presence in Ireland also lends it the name Irish strawberry-tree, or cain, or cane apple, from the Irish name for the tree, caithne, or sometimes Killarney strawberry-tree. The strawberry-tree is the national tree of Italy because of its green leaves, its white flowers and its red berries, colours that recall the Italian flag. The flower is the national flower of Italy.
Arbutus unedo is quite an easy plant to cultivate, and is adaptable to many climates. Once established it is fairly drought resistant, frost resistant, shade tolerant and salt tolerant.
Lower production of fruit mass has however been reported in case of summer droughts, and frosts in flowering time were seen to decrease the amount of fruit.
Arbutus unedo is widespread in the Mediterranean region, in Portugal, Spain, western and southeastern France; southward in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia, and eastward in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Slovenia, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It is naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland, being particularly common in western Ireland, where it is an archaeophyte that was formerly believed to be native.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Arbutus unedo by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
