h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Trees of Britain and Ireland: The Strawberry Tree - A19668892
Author: King Bomba - the land is dark, and the moon is the only light we'll see - U891566

First one in response to the Tree Challenge. More to come!

If the others are like this one.. excellent

Fascinating

The only nitpick I have is 'Mediteranean' should be spelled Mediterranean.

Random question - is it actually related to lychees? Just curious .

Nice entry .

That's one word I always have to check!

They don't seem especially closely related, they are part of the same Class (Magnoliopsida), but that's going pretty far back in the family tree!

Family tree!

What a lovely Entry, thank you, look forward to more! I'll come back and critique properly. I like to read Entries for enjoyments sake before picking holes, or stripping bark off them

Right, had a read through properly now. The only thing I might alter is when you say other species, maybe say other species of animals (as I had to think about whether you meant other species of trees).

Other than that, I think it's enough to remain intersting, but not too much to wander off into unrelated information land...

Yeah, I see what you mean. Changed.

I like it Bomba, good job! I've never heard of this tree before. Are you planning a uni series then?

Well, sort of, but it'll probably be over an extended period, so it's just going to be a lot of single entries.

Maybe you can ask the eds to join it together afterwards?

I can't add anything to this one KB - other than to say I've closely experienced the vile stuff that your 'researcher' was talking about.

Mostly, Monday nights and Friday nights down at the pub. Quiz night. Get the questions wrong and you have to down a pleasant glass of 'Aguadente de Medronho' as a deterrent for doing so badly in that round.

I've never let the evil-stuff pass my lips - I always send your 'researcher' up for it!

Short and sweet. I had no idea that the Medronho was made from strawberry trees.

I think the Mulberry ought to be the next subject.

Neat little entry I'd never heard of it before.

One question. As it grows quite readily in the Med, is it mainly found in the South of Britain, or can it be found everywhere?

Good point mags, I've added:

"Even today it is found more often in the south of the UK, and more often in south-west Ireland."

By the way. Compass points - are they capitalised? And are ones like south-west hyphenated or not? I can never remember.

Me neither, hopefully someone will come along and clarify that soon.

for the clarification

Lovely entry KB


There are some American species of strawberry tree, called madrones. Might be worth a mention, especially with the connection to Portugal (presumably the US name is from the Spanish, but I think the US species are native to there, not introduced).

How are we getting on with this one? All happy?

Kea, are they different from Arbutus unedo? They seem to be the same species from what I've read.

I'm happy with this. I think the American ones are the same species. If anyone knows otherwise they can feel free to let me know, and I'll be happy to incorporate it.