Loquat

(Eriobotrya japonica)



pick n' eat

This popular evergreen fruit tree has beautiful downy foliage, fragrant flowers, delicious fruit, and is easy to grow! The golden-yellow fruit has a pear-like flavour with a touch of apricot and pineapple.

It is delicious eater raw, steward, preserved, dried and the roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute.

The tree can grow to 5-10m tall, but is often smaller, about 3-4m. Loquats are unusual among fruit tres in that the flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe in late winter or early spring.

Loquat fruits, rowing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3-5cm long with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, something red-blushed skin.