Strawberry Tree
Arbutus unedo
Caithne

The strawberry tree is a large shrub or medium-sized evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean coast of Europe, Brittany and Ireland. It is found rarely in Cork and Kerry and by Lough Gill in Sligo, but its Irish stronghold is around Killarney in County Kerry. It is generally found on dry soil between rocks, in woodland margins and on islands and lake shores where most specimens are probably extremely ancient. It is also a popular garden plant usually grown as a bushy shrub. It has alternate oval leaves which are slightly toothed, 5 to 8 cm long, leathery and hairless. When mature, the tree has a reddish bark that is papery and flakey. The strawberry tree is one of Ireland’s few native evergreens and is a most interesting plant.

Its flowers are white and like those of lily-of-the-valley, sometimes tinged with green or pink, in drooping clusters. These are followed by fruits that are a rich red colour, rough-skinned and round. They look very like strawberries, attractive looking and edible when ripe. However, the species name “unedo” implies that eating one fruit would be more than enough. Fruit and flower clusters hang on the tree together in early winter, as the previous year’s fruit matures just as the present year’s flowers bloom. During the Middle Ages in Ireland it is said to have been a popular tree with charcoal burners and may have been exterminated from many areas with woodland clearance.

The Irish name, Caithne, occurs occasionally, especially in the west. It is not native to Britain. The English botanist, John Parkinson, referred to it in his Theatrum Botanicum,, published in 1640, reporting it remarkable that this tree grew in Ireland “of its own accord”. Thomas Molyneux recorded in 1696, presumably with displeasure, that these trees, which did not grow in any “neighbouring kingdoms”, were being cut up for fuel. There is one theory that the strawberry tree was first brought to Ireland from southern Europe by early monks, but this is thought to be unlikely. The tree is referred to in Brehon laws of the 8th century together with elder, blackthorn and some others.

The strawberry tree is more interesting than beautiful. It grows taller in Ireland than it does on the continent, and looks straggly and awkward out of the fruiting season, though the reddish bark is handsome. It is cultivated in large gardens for its striking fruit, and looks decorative at Christmas time if surrounded by more compact shrubs. There is a bushier variety “Croomei”, with deep pink flowers.
Evergreen; flowers from September to October.

Information extracted from the Appletree Press title
Appletree Deluxe Editions: Trees and Shrubs
by Peter Wyse-Jackson. Appletree Deluxe Editions: Ireland's Flora & Fauna - Collection, comprising Trees and Shrubs, Birds of Ireland and Wild Flowers.