strawberry tree

7.2

A small evergreen tree with white flowers and mild red berries

noun

: árbol de fresa

The fruits of the strawberry tree are bright red but surprisingly bland in flavor.

Examples

A mature strawberry tree can be an attractive addition to a Mediterranean garden.
She tasted a few strawberry tree berries while hiking through southern Spain.
The strawberry tree produces beautiful white flowers in spring.
In Ireland, the strawberry tree is quite common.
The garden was filled with vibrant colors as the strawberry tree blossomed with white flowers.
Children enjoyed picking the sweet, red berries from the strawberry tree during their afternoon play.
The open field featured a solitary strawberry tree, its branches adorned with both flowers and ripening fruits.

Synonyms

Arbutus unedo

vsstrawberry tree

Specialized

9.9

A small evergreen shrub or tree often called the strawberry tree with red berries that taste bland

is the common name used in everyday descriptions rather than formal taxonomy

Irish strawberry

vsstrawberry tree

9.5

A small evergreen tree with bright red berries that you can eat but are not very sweet

is limited to southern Europe and Ireland without extending to Asia Minor

Surface Forms

strawberry tree singular

strawberry trees plural

Morphology

strawberry + tree

The compound is fully compositional: combining 'strawberry' and 'tree' straightforwardly denotes a tree that is associated with or bears strawberry-like fruit, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer this meaning. It is a referential, non-idiomatic noun compound that follows common compounding patterns across languages, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Strawberry tree comes from the bright red fruits that look like strawberries even though the plant is a tree, not the usual strawberry plant. One popular story says people named it because the fruit 'look like strawberries', so the name today simply means a tree with fruit that remind people of strawberries.