The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Trees and Shrubs => Topic started by: John J on November 01, 2011, 03:30:05 PM
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A young Arbutus andrachne lit by the setting sun.
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This is quite uncommon on Crete especially compared with A. unedo. I was surprised to find that unlike A. unedo the fruits had quite a bit of flavour to them which was not unpleasant.
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John J, that shows how beautiful the bark is on even a young plant.
Quite easily grown both from seed and from cuttings; we found that seed-grown plants quickly overtook ones grown at the same time from cuttings.
(I changed the title of the topic from the species to the genus, so that it could include other arbutuses.)
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One could say Arbuti!
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Interesting question, John! It's one of those things like cactuses/cacti, cyclamen/cyclamena (which no-one uses in English but is the equivalent of your arbuti)/cyclamens... or I suppose tomayto/tomahto!
My own feeling is that when I'm talking in English (rather than Latin or Greek), the natural plural to give a plant name is the automatic English one - eg alliums rather than allia, etc.
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Using English (or French/German/etc.) plurals also gets over the issue of epithets composed of both Latin and Greek components. Eg. with Viola alliariaefolia / V. Viola alliariaefolia the correct singular spelling is unclear, but if the latter is used, should the plural be V. alliariifoliae or V. alliariifolii?
The Anglicized viola alliariifolias avoids the problem, but makes it even more of a dog's breakfast!
(To save you looking, the Viola alliariaefolia is missing from The Plant List, V. alliariaefolia is 'unresolved'.)
Re Arbuti: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000809.html (http://Discussion on Pseudo-Latin plurals) and http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/latin.html (http://How To Pluralize Latin & Greek Nouns)
...more of a minefield than one might imagine...
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One of the most beautiful shrubs I have ever seen is Arbutus unedo. And this is the time of year where you could find plants so happily decorated with orange and red fruits next to the campanulate new flowers that are produced simultaneously. Well, after eating at least 2 handfuls of fruits I gathered about two kilos for my folks. My mother was ecstatic and is now making marmelade as I write this lines -for her first time with this kind of fruit. Lets wait and see what happens :-)
Arbutus unedo from Mt Hymettus 17/11/2012
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-POu_raSFnqM/UKewFLiiNTI/AAAAAAAACC4/cmUay82lRm4/s1024/Arbutus%2520unedo.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_n_9lKW79qE/UKewMSq9dbI/AAAAAAAACDc/WM3Lu4Le4zw/s912/Arbutus%252Bunedo_.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WUz_Xnw5bRI/UKewI7oE7YI/AAAAAAAACDI/QwFAmiZA_Ac/s512/Arbutus%252Bunedo.jpg)
Fresh leaves in late spring (+Hypericum empetrifolium + Cistus creticus)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t3AHG9qU-1U/UKewI2IJyEI/AAAAAAAACDE/KxY594mKsDE/s512/Arbutus%252Bfriends.jpg)
Also from Hymettus, Arbutus andrachne (I couldn't reach the fruits to taste them)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AKw4WhBnIA4/UKewE67zZYI/AAAAAAAACC0/3njS1MvBEMw/s512/Arbutus%252Bandrachne.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-44GX6H5dCrs/UKew4pKz3gI/AAAAAAAACDs/OqAAzE3FYpY/s1024/Arbutus%2520adrachne.jpg)
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I agree Bolanthus..its a beautiful and tough shrub. It does very well here on our poor soil.
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Gorgeous photos - I am also very fond of Arbutus, the shrub and the fruit.
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Bolanthus. Your photos of Arbutus are wonderful. Those sweet little bells. It really is the prince/princess of the Ericaceae.
Your reports of your botanical finds are so interesting. Keep it up.
Once in Puglia I tried a marmellata made from Arbutus. As I have spent a lifetime enjoying Seville Orange and also Cumquat marmelade, the Arbutus had little or no taste. I am sure your mother's jam will be better.
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Bolanthus - nicely decorated trees - I would call them bebaubled.
I have grown A. unedo in the UK, where after a few years from seed, it formed a well behaved shrub - responding to pruning well. Here in Cyprus, A. andrachne is native, though absent from lower altitudes as a wild plant. It, too, is amenable to pruning, including exposing the trunk(s), which become a lovely cinnamon colour with age and often develop sinuous shapes. In several respects, they fill the same niche as manzanita (http://firewoodonline.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/223086-Manzanita-Tree-0.276171826_std.jpg) does in chaparral parts of the mountains of western North America.
Manzanita covers almost a hundred species of Arctostaphylos, most of which grow in a mediterranean climate. Like the related Arbutus, the berries (and flowers) of most species are reported to be edible (not checked by me). Note: 'manzanita' translates from Spanish as 'little apple' - which could also described the fruit of Arbutus.
I have wandered off into manzanitas to give them a little airing on this forum, since they (like Arbutus) are eminently suited to our mediterranean gardening - being tough, tolerant of drought and heat, and with attractive bark, structure, flowers, fruit and foliage, and with some culinary uses.
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Bolanthus. Your photos of Arbutus are wonderful. Those sweet little bells. It really is the prince/princess of the Ericaceae.
Your reports of your botanical finds are so interesting. Keep it up.
Once in Puglia I tried a marmellata made from Arbutus. As I have spent a lifetime enjoying Seville Orange and also Cumquat marmelade, the Arbutus had little or no taste. I am sure your mother's jam will be better.
Thank you Joanna :-)
About mom's marmalade, it was a disaster ...many unpleasant seeds and nothing really special. She totally regretted that she didn't keep the fruits in the refrigerator for healthy snacks
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Arbutus unedo doesn't seem to be often sold in garden centers here, but I saw some small plants now. How much space is needed for one, how fast does it grow in a dry, hot climate, can one estimate it a little bit?
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I have one A. unedo bush which I bought from a local nursery some years ago. There have been no problems at all with this one, it grows slowly, but steadily, and seems to accept the poor, dry soil very well; the dark green leaves look good all the time. So far, it has not had any flowers.
According to the books, it is said that they may reach a height of 12 m, but I have never seen any taller than 3 m around here (and up to 1, 5 m wide), where they are growing naturally, and there are lots of them. One of my favourites, and it does not need much water.
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Thanks a lot, John! I saw a beautiful specimen in a show garden, which was trained as a tree and was about 3m high and very broad, probably 3m, but it must have been then very old and systematically pruned.
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Last spring I discovered a few A. andrachne trees not far from us (around 350 m above sea level), they were much taller than any A. arbutus I have seen, and full of flowers.
This place is quite special, full of orchids, fritillarias, anemonies and irises in spring, sternbergias, colchicums and cyclamens in the autumn.
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It does sound a very special place Jorun, can we see some 'photos please? It is always interesting to discover places where the variety of wild flowers is more diverse than in surrounding areas, I have noticed that around us the land beneath Sweet Chestnuts is often rich in orchids in particular. Since the chestnuts are grown as a crop (some of the trees are very old) the land around is cared for to enable ease of gathering, thus unwanted scrubby vegetation is kept at bay and, despite the leaf canopy of the trees, more light and less competition allows certain plants to flourish and develop colonies - that is my theory anyway! Could be some kind of symbiosis though?
Would be interested in your comments :)
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I have mostly taken photos of the plants in that area, no landscapes (have to do something about that), but it is only around 500 meters from a small Εξοχική εκκλησία (=countryside church) called Profitis Ilias, which is a couple of kilometres outside the village Metaggitsi and situated on a small hilltop overlooking both the gulf between Kassandra and Sithonia and the gulf between Sithonia and Mount Athos. The view from here is spectacular, and there is a huge celebration for the Prophet Elias every year on 19 July.
‘My’ place is a very rocky stretch along the road to Metamorfosi, with some deeper pockets, like small, steep valleys, in between, there are often signs of wild boars having just been there. I am not sure if I am more afraid of these or those hunting them. Last year I saw that a couple of meters on each side of the road had been ploughed, to make it easier to trace the movements of the boars. Otherwise it is too rocky for any agricultural use.
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Lovely pictures, Jorun and Aris.
Going back to how big arbutus can grow, in Melbourne Botanic Gardens last month I saw a magnificent Arbutus unedo, reclining gracefully into its old age. Out of curiosity I paced out its diameter - 50 metres!
That is a very special climate, hot in summer and mild in winter, usually with some rain right through the summer. I've never seen one anything remotely like that size in Greece. We've grown them both from seed and from cuttings and find them very slow but sure, say half a metre at the most after three years.
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Despite it growing wild on Skopelos I've been unable to source a. andrachne from any Greek nurseries. I have read (probably on the forum) that arbutus will not transplant and cuttings are very difficult. Is that so? Has anyone succeeded? If so, I could then try with andrachne myself. Locals find it hilarious that I purchase koumaria (a.unedo) from a nursery. It is a very beautiful shrub/tree year round as well as being excellent firewood even when unseasoned.
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Janet, we've taken arbutus cuttings in Greece, flown them back to England as cuttings and struck them there, then taken them out to Greece as very young plants, and they've been no more difficult than other shrubs. But plants that we raised from seed that we'd collected at the same time initially overtook the cuttings plants - though they've all more or less kept pace with each other since.
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That's very interesting. Alastair - when did you take the cuttings? Also I've never thought about growing from seed. Where are the seeds? They are not on the outside of the fruit and I don't remember them being inside it, are they?
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We took the cuttings in late October or early November. Talking just now to my wife Helena about it, who's the cuttings expert in this family, we think (but really can't remember for sure), that the seeds were inside the fruits, as we do have a vague recollection of sticky fingers.
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The seeds are inside the mature fruit, I have stolen a photo from the internet, as shown below.
I am surprised you can't find Arbutus unedo for sale on Skopelos, I bought one many years ago locally in Halkidiki, it is doing well. Growing from cuttings sounds interesting, I must try that, I have brought many plants I have propagated in Norway from seeds collected in Greece, plastic bottles are excellent for transporting them, I cut off the top, put the plant inside and tape the top back again for protection. Cardboard boxes for transporting wine wine are also useful.
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I can get a. unedo if I order it from the mainland. Its not something anyone else I know here has planted. What I don't seem to be able to find in any Greek nursery is a. andrachne, and this is more surprising because it is gardenworthy for so very many reasons. Thank you for the information about seeds. I've eaten them but have never looked inside. I'm going to try some cuttings (as recomended by Alastair) once there's some new semi-ripe wood (which in the current rain will probably be in a month's time) and will try the seeds next time there's some nice plump fruit around. I have a friend with lots of a. andrachne on his land so will report back in a year to eighteen months!