Outside of our building, there are two trees, both about 7-8 feet tall, with thin bark and kind of scalloped edged leaves. One one of these trees, there are some sort of fruit I guess…not really nuts, and not really berries. They’re about the size of an acorn (some a little larger) and resemble raspberries but firmer. The less “ripe” ones are green, but the more “ripe” ones are red, and the darker red they are, the squishier the fruit.
What kind of tree is it?
It sounds like an Arbutus sp. most commonly Arbutus unedo, the Irish Strawberry Tree.
You could eat a fruit, but you’d probably only eat one. Hence the generic name unedo
The fruitless one is probably a male as Arbutus are dioecious.
Although the male isn’t necessary for female fruit production it is a nice touch to have both. That is, of course, if I am right.
No, the fruit on the tree you linked to looks to be too round and smooth.
The fruit on the tree I’m attempting to describe looks kind of like a cross between a pineapple and a raspberry, and is no bigger than a quarter.
Very minor nitpick, sarcophilus, on a good job of finding a quick answer: Arbutus is the generic name. unedo is technically called the trivial name – that’s not a deprecation, but the technical term for the latter half of a binomial nomenclature name standing alone. The species name, of course, is the full binomial: Arbutus unedo.
Indeed.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I am, really. I have a feeling you know exactly what tree I mean, but it’s my vague description that’s preventing you from ID-ing it.
I did some more looking around, and was able to find out that the leaf could be considered lanceolate, I guess.
:smack:
I am really grateful.
Sure sounds like mulberry trees to me - here’s a link to a close-up picture, though the mulberry fruits I’ve known are less elongated - more raspberry shaped. http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html Mulberry fruits make a natural dye (smells heavenly when you’re cooking it up) and can be used in recipes like any other berry, though different varieties have slightly different flavors, and some are considered more desireable for cooking. Mulberry leaves are the only food domestic silkworms eat. George Washington had a notion to start an American silk industry, and many trees were planted in Virginia to feed them. Of course, the project was not successful.
Could it be a mulberry, genus Morus?
Hmmm, yes I see Polycarp botanical jargon. I derived generic from the Genus species format.
Well Casey, now i’m completely buggered!
but will keep thinking!
Close, based on this picture, but the leaves on a mulberry appear to be wider than mystery tree. Also, there’s not as much fruit on “my” tree as there appears to be on a mulberry.
I still think we’re getting close. I really wish I had a digital camera at work…
Hey! Maybe I discovered a new mutant species of tree! I can retire a filthy righ botanist now!
If we can’t ID the tree over the weekend, I will come to work and declare it to be a Stery Tree. Get it? It’s My Stery Tree (nameofit stumpedallovus).
Accept for the scalloped edged leaves, I’d guess Cornus Kousa, Chinese Dogwood.
http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/dogwood_chinese/dogwood_chinese.html
I think we have a winner. Please except( 
) my apologies for being unclear in my description, but the leaves–when I said “kind of scalloped”–were wavy around the edges, not scalloped like the seashell.
But Bewildebeest’s suggestion encouraged me to do a Google Image Search, where I came uopn this photo. That, combined with the picture of the bark provided in his link, makes me pretty confident that we have identified the actual name of the Stery Tree.
Thanks.
