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Genus Arbutus
The genus Arbutus is a genus of flowering plants in the Order Ericales, Family Ericaceae, Sub-family Arbutoideae containing 12 accepted species. These twelve species are native to temperate regions within the Mediterranean, Western Europe, the Canary Islands and North America. These species are commonly called madronas, madrones or straberry trees. The name Arbutus was taken by taxonomist from the Latin and have used it to refer to the species now designated Arbutus unedo. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and the Type Species is the Arbutus unedo L. The Arbutus unedo has been placed in the sub-family Arbutoideae.
The Arbutus are evergreen trees or shrubs with red flaking bark. The stems can produce lignotubers, which is a woody swelling of the root crown. The petiolate, bifacial or isofacial, ovate or elliptic leaves are alternate. The 10-40-flowered racemes or panicles bear bisexual, urceolate flowers with 5 persistent, basally fused sepals. The flower has 5 petals. The androecium is composed of 10 stamens. The gynoecium is composed of 5 carpels with a capitate stigma.
The edible, red, globose berry bears 1–5 seeds and is often called a strawberry. Fruit development is delayed for about five months after pollination, so that flowers appear while the previous year′s fruit are ripening. Peak flowering for the genus is in April with peak fruiting in October.
The Arbutus species are called madrones or madronas in the United States, madroño in USA-TX and in MEX. In the south coast of British Columbia, CAN, the native species A. Mensiesii is called an Arbutus. In the Pacific Northwestern USA, the same native species is called the madronas or madrone.
Distribution:
Afro-Eurasia:
A. andrachne L.
A. canariensis
A. pavarii
A. unedo L.
Americas:
A. arizonica
A. bicolor
A. madrensis
A. mensiesii
A. mollis
A. occidentalis
A. tessellata
A. xalapensis
Hybrids:
Arbutus andrachne X Arbutus unedo (A. andrachnoides)
Arbutus canariensis X Arbutus unedo (A.androssterilis)
Arbutus andrachne X Arbutus canariensis (A. thuretiana)
Arbutus andrachne X Arbutus canariensis X Arbutus unedo (A. teyorum)
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