Go here to see a cool video of this plant and hear a recording of "My Love's an Arbutus" by Charles Villiers Stanford, performed by Fairhaven Singers.
Arbutus unedo grows to 15 to 30 feet tall. The variety 'Compacta' is, as the name implies, smaller.
The dark evergreen leaves are glossy and have a serrated margin The hermaphrodite flowers are white (rarely pink) bell-shaped, 4–6 mm diameter, produced panicles of 10–30 together in autumn. They are pollinated by bees.
The fruit is edible, though many people find it bland and mealy; the name 'unedo' is explained by Pliny the Elder as being derived from unum edo"I eat one", which may seem an apt response to the flavor. (Thank you Wikipedia.)
It would have been this tree to which Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931) compared his love in the poem.
My love's an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye's sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.
But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh's pearly dower.
Alas! fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time's jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You'll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye's sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.
But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh's pearly dower.
Alas! fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time's jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You'll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.
(Lene = Killarney)
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