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Tree of the Week: The Loquat

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The Loquat Tree -- Eriobotrya japonica

It’s hard not to like the loquat. The tree is small, easy to grow, doesn’t need much room, has big-veined tropical-looking leaves, fragrant flowers and attractive, small-plum-sized golden yellow fruit. Grown from seed it produces acceptable fruit, but for really tasty and large fruit it is wise to plant one of a wide selection of grafted varieties such as ‘Champagne’ (in warm areas), ‘Gold Nugget’ (in cooler parts) or MacBeth (for very large fruit).

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Indigenous to southeastern China, the tree had a long cultural history there and in Japan before it reached Paris and London in the late 1780s. It was common in California by the 1870s. The tree is widely grown in warm countries. It is a member of the rose family.

The evergreen loquat grows to some 15 to 30 feet tall and wide. The gray trunk has a tendency to become multi-stemmed. New wood may be a little brittle; it helps to build up a strong framework when the tree is young. New branches have a woolly feel. The tree is ornamental even without the fruit, but flowers and fruit are a nice bonus. Leaves are 6 to 12 inches long, starkly veined and netted; they are often used for decorations. Flowers are borne in fall or winter in clusters of fragrant, off-white flowers.

In the Southland the fruit ripens in spring. It always contains several large shiny brown seeds. Fruit is at its sweetest when just at the point that it begins to shrivel. It can be eaten fresh or used in pies or preserves. Food production is best in full sun, but the tree will take half shade, regular water to half-dry conditions and most any soil. Although the tree is easy to take care of, it can succumb to some diseases, including pear blight, Phytophthora and leaf spots caused by fungi.

The related bronze loquat, E. deflexa, is an ornamental tree with leaves less leathery and more copper in color than the edible loquat. It does not produce edible fruit.

--Pieter Severynen

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