The Strawberry Tree of the Giardino dell'Iris

The strawberry tree flowers and ripens fruit at the same time, so in autumn it hangs white bells and red fruit on the same branch. Arbutus unedo is usually a shrub you can see over the top of. This one is eight metres tall and grows in the iris garden beside Piazzale Michelangelo. Its entry on the national register of monumental trees records that height and leaves the girth column empty, and no age has been published anywhere, so what is known about it is a species, a spot and eight metres. Pliny gave it the second half of its name, unedo, from unum edo, I eat only one, which remains a fair review. The fruit looks like a lychee crossed with a raspberry and tastes of very little. Timing matters more here than for most trees on this list, and not in the tree's favour. The garden opens for only a few weeks each spring, around the iris flowering it was made for, so the autumn moment when the arbutus does its trick usually falls when the gate is shut. Go for the irises, find the strawberry tree while you are inside, and take the fruit on trust. Its record rests on one register entry that the comune republishes, which is one source rather than two.