Melon Berry fruit

9 years ago

Todays garden pix are of a bumper crop of Melon Berries or 'Che' (Cudrania tricuspidata), a relative of figs, mulberry and Bois D'arc or Osage Orange. Very pretty tree especially in fruit. No pest issues. Not fussy or demanding. Fruit usually tastes like faint cantaloupe but this year it is more like watermelon, which is pretty yummy even tho the kitchen counters are covered in melons from the garden. I got this tree from Edible Landscaping in Afton VA about 5 years ago. It is grafted onto Bois D'arc to keep it from suckering and to grow more like a tree instead of a thicket.

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trianglejohn
Original Author

9 years ago

So far the wildlife have left them alone. I imagine that in the future they will learn how good they taste and I will have to settle for half-eaten fruit.

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Comments (7)

karen__w z7 NC
9 years ago
Pretty. Do the birds or squirrels eat them?
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CasaLester RTP, NC (7b)
9 years ago
TriangleJohn, among all your exotic fruiting trees, do you have Arbutus unedo, in particular its 'Compacta' variety? As an evergreen Mediterranean classic, it's been added to our exploration/acquisition list.
trianglejohn
Original Author
9 years ago
Les - they had one at the JCRA at one time. I believe it was dwarf form. I don't remember ever seeing it in fruit but it may have. I don't remember seeing it lately so they may have removed it. I heard they took forever to reach maturity and that the fruit had little flavor. I also read once where somebody in Italy was working on cultivars with superior fruit. I don't have one and I don't have room for one. I will once I finally give up on growing peaches and nectarines.
CasaLester RTP, NC (7b)
9 years ago
Fruit quality doesn't matter as much to our gardening objectives as ornamental value and cultural relevance, with Mediterranean and Japanese of particular importance.

Among the three Arbutus entries in the JCRA online database, we just saw one this spring and it is a few feet tall shrub: Arbutus unedo 'Compacta' in E33.

We still need to check out the other two: Arbutus × andrachnoides in W13 and Arbutus unedo 'Oktoberfest' in Y06, the latter apparently a new planting from 2016 in the new beds under development in the eastern part of JCRA.
karen__w z7 NC
9 years ago
John, am eating lots of half figs right now and am OK with that. Still delicious. Do you ever get seed from that?
trianglejohn
Original Author
9 years ago
Karen - I don't have a male so the fruit on my tree is seedless, but when I have tasted them at other peoples gardens there have been seeds in the fruit. You want the grafted female version because on their own roots they tend to sucker like crazy to form a thicket.