Strawberry Tree

Arbutus unedo, the strawberry tree, has been known and revered for millennia in summer-dry climates surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and has been cultivated in Europe at least since the seventeenth century. Its popularity among gardeners and landscape designers seemed to have waned in recent years as other shrubs and small trees, most notably the hybrid Arbutus ‘Marina’, took center stage. The strawberry tree is now poised for a comeback.

Arbutus unedo is known for its simultaneous flower and fruit display, which adds to its aesthetic appeal but complicates commercial harvesting of its edible fruit.

Arbutus unedo is an evergreen, usually multi-stem shrub or small tree, 15-35 feet tall and wide. Leaves are glossy, dark green, and oval to elliptic, somewhat resembling those of bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) but with finely serrated margins. The small, white, often pink-tinged, lightly fragrant flowers are bell- or urn-shaped and held in pendant clusters at the ends of branches in the manner of manzanitas and other members of the Ericaceae.

Bark of mature trees is grayish brown and roughly fissured, shedding to expose a smooth, reddish brown bark beneath. The fruit is a berry that starts out green, turning yellow, orange, and then bright red as it ripens. Flower buds appear in summer, opening in fall and persisting into winter along with the previous year’s ripening berries. The edible fruits are harvested by hand to protect the flowers that produce the next year’s crop.

Arbutus unedo can be grown as a large shrub or limbed up as a small to medium-sized tree.

Arbutus unedo has a wide native distribution, from mild-climate parts of Morocco to Libya in north Africa, Portugal to Turkey in southern Europe, and Syria to Palestine in the Middle East. Disjunct wild populations found in western Europe as far north as Ireland may be native or may have been introduced many centuries ago.

This adaptable, long-lived, shrubby tree grows in rocky, well-drained, nutrient-poor soils in Mediterranean maquis, in open woodlands dominated by oaks and pines, and especially in transition zones between them. It thrives in full sun or light shade and tolerates some drought, salt-laden winds, acidic to mildly alkaline soils, and temperatures down to the mid-teens as long as deep freezes are not prolonged. In milder, drier sites in the eastern Mediterranean Arbutus unedo may occur together with the highly drought-adapted but frost-tender A. andrachne.

A mature, limbed-up, multi-trunk Arbutus unedo provides dappled shade in a residential garden.

Arbutus unedo is considered a keystone species of the ecosystems in which it grows, providing food and shelter and acting as a host plant for various wildlife. Its extensive root system helps to anchor soils and reduce runoff. Its leaves, fruits, and bark add to soil organic matter, helping to restore degraded sites and post-fire soils.

Its resistance to wildfire and its ability to resprout quickly even after top growth has burned is a major reason for the current surge of interest in the strawberry tree. Forestry managers in fire-prone areas of Portugal, Spain, and southern France are planting Arbutus unedo as a firebreak between wildlands and adjacent populated areas to slow the advance of wildfire and to promote restoration of burned sites.

Studies have shown that, compared to other Mediterranean plants with which it occurs, Arbutus unedo is slower to ignite and once it does ignite it burns more slowly and with a lower rate of spread. Its leathery, waxy leaves tend to retain moisture. It does not produce the essential oils that cause rapid, explosive ignition. And its relatively low, open, rounded canopy is mostly free of dry, dead material.  Planting A. unedo adjacent to and within forested monocultures can slow advancing wildfire by breaking up the continuity of fuel.

Arbutus unedo ‘Compacta’ is a dwarf cultivar suitable for smaller landscapes.

Several cultivars are available. ‘Compacta’, ‘Atlantic’, and ‘Elfin King’ are smaller, topping out at 10-12 feet tall and about as wide. ‘Quercifolia’ has distinctive leaves, lobed or undulating and somewhat resembling those of an oak tree. Arbutus unedo f. rubra is a full-sized form of strawberry tree that has deep pink or pale purplish red flowers.

The most popular variety of strawberry tree is the hybrid known as Arbutus ‘Marina’, which is believed to be a cross involving A. unedo, A. andrachne, and possibly A. canariensis from the Canary Islands. It is faster growing and larger than A. unedo, maturing at 45-50 feet tall and up to 50 feet wide.

With larger leaves, larger flower clusters, more fruit, and red-orange bark that peels dramatically in impressive strips, Arbutus ‘Marina’ is irresistibly attractive and deceptively small in nursery containers and when first planted in the ground. Over time it can come to be seen as exceedingly messy or overpowering in small or aggressively maintained residential or commercial landscapes. The species, A. unedo, is standing by.