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Beilschmiedia berteroana
Southern acorn tree is a threatened evergreen tree from central Chile, grown as an ornamental and valued for its edible fruit and hard wood. It is a tree species, so care here applies to young trees in pots or garden planting rather than typical houseplant care.
Beilschmiedia berteroana (southern acorn tree, belloto del sur in Spanish) is a threatened evergreen tree in the family Lauraceae endemic to Chile at 35 to 37°S.
Edible fruit, with a sweet taste; of local consumption, with fruit potential. The bark of B. berteroana is useful for tanning leather. It is often used as an ornamental tree in Chile. It blooms between July and August (Southern Hemisphere). The flowers are used by introduced European bees for producing a very delicious honey. The wood is very beautiful and hard. Can grow up to USDA zone 9b. The tree has been planted and acclimatized in Spain, but is rarely seen there.
It grows at altitudes up to 1800 m above sea level, and it has an acceptable frost tolerance within this mostly tropical genus. A specific example of occurrence is in the La Campana National Park of central Chile and amid the adjoining Cerro La Campana; in that location it is associated with the endangered Chilean wine palm, a tree with a much wider prehistoric distribution than at present.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Beilschmiedia berteroana 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.
