Skip to content

Your account

With an account, your progress (modules read, XP, badges, cards, notebook, pack, challenges) follows you on every device. Without one, it stays in this browser.

or
Harmless🍽️ Edible

🍒 Strawberry tree

Arbutus unedo · Ericaceae

🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it"Dark red or leave it alone" — eat only the fully ripe, dark red, almost soft fruit; the firm orange fruit will give you a stomachache.
Strawberry tree — Arbutus unedo

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Evergreen shrub or small tree, 2 to 8 m tall, with reddish-brown bark peeling in strips, and alternate, leathery, serrated, shiny leaves. Remarkable feature: white bell-shaped flowers and round, orange-red berries with a bumpy surface ("strawberry tree fruit") are present on the tree at the same time in autumn, as the fruit takes a full year to ripen.

  1. reddish bark peeling in strips
  2. alternate, serrated, leathery, shiny leaves
  3. spherical bumpy orange-red strawberry-like fruit
  4. flowers and ripe fruits present at the same time in autumn
Size2-8 m
FloweringOctober-December
HabitatMediterranean maquis and open forests, preferably acidic soils, often under Oak canopy

⚠️ Not to be confused with

No known dangerous confusionaucun

To tell them apart: the unique bumpy (tuberculate) surface of the fruit, along with the simultaneous presence of bell-shaped flowers and ripe fruits on the same tree in autumn, are not found in any other Mediterranean maquis species

🍽️ Eating it

Partsripe fruit (dark red)
Seasonoctobre-décembre
Tastesweet, mealy, notes of slightly fermented ripe strawberry

Preparation : eat fully ripe only (green or barely ripe fruit is astringent and can cause digestive upset); excellent in jam, jelly, or brandy (Portuguese "medronho")

65kcalEnergy
15gCarbs
25mgVitamin C

ordre de grandeur d'après la littérature botanique générale, à considérer comme approximatif

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • hardwood used in small cabinetmaking and high-quality charcoal
  • flowers are rich in nectar, yielding a typical bitter late-autumn honey
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.