Arbutus andrachne
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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Bean's Trees and Shrubs
Arbutus andrachne L.
An evergreen tree 30 to 40 ft high in a wild state, but usually a shrub 10 to 20 ft high in Great Britain; young shoots glabrous; bark on older branches peeling and reddish brown. Leaves oval, usually 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, dark glossy green above, paler below, glabrous, toothed in young specimens and on very vigorous shoots, but entire in the adult normal state; stalks 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers produced during March and April in terminal, downy panicles, 2 to 4 in. long and wide; corolla pitcher-shaped, 1⁄4 in. long, dull white, with five shallow, reflexed lobes at the contracted mouth; calyx lobes ovate, pointed; flower-stalks glandular-hairy. Fruit globose, 1⁄2 in. diameter, much smoother than that of A. unedo, orange red. Bot. Mag., t. 2024.
Native of S.E. Europe, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region; introduced from Smyrna in 1724. It is but little known in cultivation, nearly all the plants so-called being A. × andrachnoides. From A. unedo it is distinguished by its comparatively broader, toothless leaves and smooth shoots; and from A. menziesii by the leaves being less glaucous beneath, the smaller panicles, and the more compact habit.
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'Arbutus andrachne' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Other species in genus
An evergreen tree 30 to 40 ft high in a wild state, but usually a shrub 10 to 20 ft high in Great Britain; young shoots glabrous; bark on older branches peeling and reddish brown. Leaves oval, usually 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, dark glossy green above, paler below, glabrous, toothed in young specimens and on very vigorous shoots, but entire in the adult normal state; stalks 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers produced during March and April in terminal, downy panicles, 2 to 4 in. long and wide; corolla pitcher-shaped, 1⁄4 in. long, dull white, with five shallow, reflexed lobes at the contracted mouth; calyx lobes ovate, pointed; flower-stalks glandular-hairy. Fruit globose, 1⁄2 in. diameter, much smoother than that of A. unedo, orange red. Bot. Mag., t. 2024.
Native of S.E. Europe, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region; introduced from Smyrna in 1724. It is but little known in cultivation, nearly all the plants so-called being A. × andrachnoides. From A. unedo it is distinguished by its comparatively broader, toothless leaves and smooth shoots; and from A. menziesii by the leaves being less glaucous beneath, the smaller panicles, and the more compact habit.
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