Strawberry tree

It looks like a bush or a small tree, which can reach a height of 10 m. It is an evergreen plant with rather shiny oval-lanceolate leaves and serrated margins.
The flowers appear between October and November, they are gathered in pendulous panicles with a white-coloured corolla.

It belongs to the Ericaceae family, widespread in the western Mediterranean countries and on the southern coasts of Ireland.

The fruits are fleshy spherical berries, red when ripe, covered with quite rigid tubercles, they ripen in October-December, in the year following the flowering that gives rise to them, with gradual maturation.

It seems that part of its botanical name is due to Pliny the Elder who did not like its fruits and used to say "I only eat one" that is, unum edo - unedo; the Greeks called the fruits Komaros, the same name they used for strawberries and Ovid also refers to the strawberry tree as "mountain strawberries" that the earth spontaneously gave to men to satisfy them.
In the Risorgimento the strawberry tree was associated with the tricolor for its white flowers, green leaves and red fruits; the poet Giovanni Pascoli celebrated it with a poem ("At the strawberry tree").
In some areas of central Italy, it was traditional to go through the woods to eat this fruit during the festival which was celebrated on October 28th as in a sort of "Bacchante" rite.
In some places in rural Sardinia, the branches of the strawberry tree are still used today to build "su pilìsu", the tool used to break the milk curd.
In peasant and popular tradition, the strawberry tree symbolized love and jealousy due to its red external color and yellow pulp.
Its branches were placed above the entrance door to the house as a welcome for guests.