Dense! If this is the place I've been to there are/were more of them on the other side of the building. That year they were loaded with fruit - notice the timing of the flowers in the picture, this affects ability to fruit up here. The brown flowers behind may be left from an earlier time or they may have been recently frosted.

One or two were on the back side of the house(?), another was by itself, much farther away and behind a business that was stacking pallets against it. Except for the wall of the business on one side the one holding up the pallets was basically growing in a sea of asphalt, surrounded mostly by parking lot. A carpet of fallen fruits lay beneath it. After I backed my compact pickup truck up to it and got into the bed, was reaching out to pick a fresh fruit off the tree a man popped out of the building where the others were - perhaps as much as 75'-100' away - and yelled "Did somebody say you could have those?!". We left without getting a taste.

It may really look like nobody is interested but they may, in fact, be. I doubt most of the fruits from the one tree were ever harvested, but I have no doubt there was someone claiming ownership. I it was like they were sitting by a window all day and watching the tree.

Well, I may take my chances with the locals if I have a chance at some fruit. Like you I haven't tasted local Loquats, or Loquats in general for that matter.

For the record Ron, when reaching up from the bed of my pickup, I would have grabbed a handful and run!!

I think I have eaten one produced by another Seattle specimen I was sure was a 'Gold Nugget' because it appeared in the yard at the same time some of these were on the market here - and looked just like them. Can't describe what the fruit was like now, however. Foliage of tree later collapsed into a blackened heap on top of the main branches during the 1990 winter, I figured it was a goner. However, I think it did eventually restore itself.

I miss loquats. I was in China when I first tasted the fruits, which they call "Pipa". I was taught that the smaller and cheaper fruits are often the sweetest compared to the larger, meatier and more expensive ones. The fruit is very fleshy and juicy!

The tree itself is great in the landscape with it's rugose evergreen foliage and creates a tropical look in the landscape once mature.

This specimen in the ID always catches my eye. There are also some growing on the UW campus that flowers regularly and sets fruit, but they never really ripen properly.

R

This book lists 8 Seattle locations where loquat trees can be seen, the tallest specimen 33' tall (probably measured 2004-5).

Here is a link that might be useful: Trees of Seattle second edition

Wow, that's huge!

I had loquats in Rome, where I didn't catch the name, and then in Corsica where they called it a nefle.

I finally hunted one down, and mine is about five feet tall right now. It's still grumpy from the freeze earlier this month, but I have high hopes for it.