The Strawberry Tree of Château de Crémat

This tree grows on a wine estate whose owners kept rebuilding the same hillside into ever grander versions of itself. Antoine Mari bought the land on the hill of Crémat in 1906 and built a medieval-style château with a machicolated tower, part of the Bellet appellation that has grown grapes on Nice's inland hills since Roman times. Irène Bretz, a wealthy American who took over the estate in 1923, added neo-Tuscan flourishes and built out the surrounding gardens further, the setting in which this Arbutus unedo, listed with precise coordinates on the regional remarkable-trees registry for the Alpes-Maritimes, now stands. The species carries both flowers and red, strawberry-like fruit on its branches at the same time in autumn, an unusual trait for a Mediterranean evergreen, and no individual age is documented for this specimen beyond its listing as a notable specimen. The estate still produces organically farmed Bellet wine today and takes visitors on booked tours through its gardens, art collection and cellars, one of the few trees on this list that comes with a tasting afterward.