Arbutus menziesii
| Pacific madrona | |
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| Species: | A. menziesii
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| Binomial name | |
| Arbutus menziesii | |
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The pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) is a close relative of the common "ornamental" Arbutus unedo, but it is native to California and the Pacific Northwest. It tends to be a larger tree, but has smaller fruits that are harder and even more packed with seeds than those of A. unedo.
The fruit are not terrible to eat raw, but they are definitely not as good as A. unedo. It may be possible to improve the texture by some sort of processing, but boiling doesn't really help at all - it actually makes things worse because the fruits lose their red color and some of the flavor. I think the hard, seedy texture is worse than the mild astringency, so perhaps the way to go is some kind of blending, grinding, or juicing.
References
- ↑ This species was originally described and published in Flora Americae Septentrionalis; or, a Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America 1:282. 1813–1814. GRIN (April 25, 2003). "Arbutus menziesii information from NPGS/GRIN". Taxonomy for Plants. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland: USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
- ↑ The Plant List, Arbutus menziesii Pursh
Acknowledgements
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Arbutus menziesii, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.