Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Skip to content

Arbutus unedo (Ericaceae)

I learned Latin as a child, in a French secondary school (lycée). The Latin teacher, who had likewise learned this ancient language as a child, would set a trap, asking for a French translation of arbutus. Inevitably, us innocent pupils would translate it as arbuste (arbust) instead of the correct arbousier (strawberry tree). I fully realize I now have to explain, not the Latin but the English name: why ‘strawberry tree’?

But first, its naming in Latin. Romans apparently referred to it as either arbutus or unedo. The latter is short for Unum Tantum Edo, I eat only one-a-day (Pliny the Elder). In Linnaeus’s time, the shrub was alst named Arbutus uva ursi (Arbutos of the bear’s grape), somewhat similar to its name in English, strawberry tree; for its red fruit.

The shrub grows all around the Mediterranean, on its shores, all over: Greece, North Africa, southwestern Morocco, Corsica and Provence, Sardinia, Malta, Cyprus (together with the related species Arbutus andrachne), Spain and Portugal. It is found typically on acidic and dry soil, in scrubland and in siliceous undergrowth.

The small white or pink flowers coexist with the fruit for several months, from November to January.Speaking of the fruit, indeed strawberry-like in appearance. it is reported with a rather bland taste, sweet and sour. Its texture is given as sandy and gritty.

And it was used for centuries in the traditional pharmacopeia, for a number of (minor) ailments, as antiseptic, diuretic and laxative while the leaves were used as diuretic, urinary antiseptic, antidiarrheal, astringent, depurative and antihypertensive.

Actually, some recent studies report activity against colon cancer which, no doubt, will lead to commercial applications.

Published inPlants