Madroño

Appearance

"Arbutus unedo" grows to 5–10 m tall, rarely up to 15 m, with a trunk diameter of up to 80 cm. Zone: 7–10

The leaves are dark green and glossy, 5–10 cm long and 2–3 cm broad, with a serrated margin.

The hermaphrodite flowers are white, bell-shaped, 4–6 mm diameter, produced panicles of 10–30 together in autumn. They are pollinated by bees.

The fruit is a red berry, 1–2 cm diameter, with a rough surface. It matures in about 12 months, in autumn, at the same time as the next flowering. It is edible; the fruit is sweet when reddish, and tastes similar to a fig.

The name "unedo" is attributed to Pliny the Elder, who allegedly claimed that ""unum tantum edo"", meaning "I eat only one". It is not known whether he meant that the fruit was so good he could eat only one, or whether he meant that the fruit was uninteresting so he ate only one.

Distribution

"Arbutus unedo" is widespread in the Mediterranean region: in Portugal, Spain and southeastern France; southward in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and eastward in Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Syria. It is also found in western France, Albania, Bulgaria and southwestern Ireland.

Its disjunct distribution, with an isolated relict population in southwestern and northwestern Ireland, notably in Killarney and around Lough Gill in County Sligo, which is its most northerly stand in the world, is a remnant of former broader distribution during the milder climate of the Atlantic period, the warmest and moistest Blytt-Sernander period, when the climate was generally warmer than today. The red-flowered variant, named "A. unedo rubra" by William Aiton in 1785, was discovered growing wild in Ireland in 1835.

Evolution

Its Mediterranean habitat, elegant details of leaf and habit and dramatic show of fruit with flowers made "Arbutus unedo" notable in Classical Antiquity, when Pliny thought it should not be planted where bees are kept, for the bitterness it imparts to honey.

The first signs of its importation into northern European gardens was to 16th-century England from Ireland. In 1586 a correspondent in Ireland sent plants to the Elizabethan courtiers Lord Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham. An earlier description by Rev. William Turner was probably based on hearsay. The Irish association of "Arbutus" in English gardens is reflected in the inventory taken in 1649 of Henrietta Maria's Wimbledon: "one very fayre tree, called the Irish arbutis standing in the midle parte of the sayd kitchin garden, very lovely to look upon" By the 18th century "Arbutus unedo" was well known enough in English gardens for Batty Langley to make the bold and impractical suggestion that it might be used for hedges, though it "will not admit of being clipped as other evergreens are."

In the United States, Thomas Jefferson lists the plant in his Monticello gardens in 1778.

The form "A. unedo" f. "rubra" and the hybrid "A." × "andrachnoides", have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Uses

"Arbutus unedo" serves as a bee plant for honey production, and the fruits are food for birds. The fruits are also used to make jams, beverages, and liqueurs. Many regions of Albania prepare the traditional drink raki from the fruits of the plant, hence comes the name of the drink "raki kocimareje". In order to reduce the high content of methanol in the drink, the spirit is distilled twice. Honey produced has a characteristic bitter taste.

In folk medicine, the plant has been used for antiseptic, astringent, intoxicant, rheumatism, and tonic purposes.

"The Garden of Earthly Delights", a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, was originally listed by José de Sigüenza, in the inventory of the Spanish Crown as "La Pintura del Madroño" – "The Painting of the Strawberry Tree".

The tree makes up part of the Coat of arms of Madrid of the city of Madrid, Spain. In the center of the city there is a statue of a bear eating the fruit of the "Madroño" tree. The image appears on city crests, taxi cabs, man-hole covers, and other city infrastructure. The fruit of the "Madroño" tree ferments on the tree if left to ripen, so some of the bears become drunk from eating the fruits.

The tree is mentioned by Roman poet Ovid, in Book I: 89–112 "The Golden Age" of his "Metamorphoses": "Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles, and acorns fallen from Jupiter’s spreading oak-tree."

The poet Giovanni Pascoli dedicated to the strawberry tree a poem. In that he refers to the Aeneid passage which Pallas in, killed by Turnus, was posed on branches of strawberry tree; the poet saw the colours of that plant a prefiguration of the flag of Italy and considered Pallas the first "national cause martyr". Pascoli's ode says:

"O verde albero italico, il tuo maggio"

"è nella bruma: s'anche tutto muora,"

"tu il giovanile gonfalon selvaggio"

"spieghi alla bora"

"Oh green Italian tree, your May month"

"is in the mist: if everything die,"

"you, the youthful wild banner"

"unfold to the northern wind"

In the Italian Risorgimento the strawberry tree, because of its autumnal colours, the same colours of the Italian flag, at the same time red for fruits and white for flowers, beyond the green colour of leaves, was considered, indeed, a symbol of the flag.