Although flowers and foliage are the principal assets of ornamental plants, colorful fruit is an occasional added bonus. The winter season is a time when the fruits of certain pome species are abundant and highly visible. If these little fruits remind you of miniature apples, there is a good reason for this. Apples are pome fruits, too. However, I do not recommend eating any of these raw since some are toxic and the ones that are OK to eat are rather bland. Some are less toxic and more flavorful when cooked and there is plenty of information available online for incorporating them into your diet should you choose to do so.
Let’s start with the California native toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia). This plant was called toyon (tollon) by the Spanish, mimicking the word used for this shrub in Penutian, a group of Native American languages. Its berries had long been a food source of Native American tribes throughout California. It took a while, but finally, in 2012, the title of the official native plant of the City of Angels was bestowed upon it, a testament to its presence in the hills above, around and right through the middle of Los Angeles. In that same year, toyon shrubs were planted around Los Angeles City Hall to replace an expansive lawn.
You may not know it, but bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) and coral tree (Erythrina caffra) are the official flower and tree of Los Angeles, although both are native to South Africa.
The vivid scarlet berries and saw-toothed leaves of the toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) are vaguely similar to holly berries and leaves, and Hollywood owes its name to this resemblance. Those who came here from the Eastern United States missed their holly back home and thought they had found an approximation to it when looking at the toyon. Wander around the Hollywood Hills even today, not far from the famous Hollywood sign, and you will yet see many toyon bushes, their red berries shining brilliantly amidst an otherwise pale winterscape.
Toyon grows locally in both sunny and somewhat shady locations, in almost any soil, and can go virtually without water after a couple of years in the garden. Another name given to this plant was Christmas berry, due to the season that its fruits ripen. In the first years of the 20th century, cutting toyon branches for Christmas decoration became so widespread that the state of California, in order to prevent the destruction of the species, passed a law in the 1920s outlawing this practice. The only toyon branches you were allowed to cut were those taken from plants growing on your own property. This law, incidentally, is still in force. As for toyon’s attraction to wildlife, a variety of birds, as well as coyotes and bears, consume its fruit.
Chinese photinia (Photinia serrulata) is a closely related species that is seldom encountered in the nursery trade but should be more widely available. It is a handsome, symmetrically domed shrub that quickly grows to a mature height of around 15 feet in our area and makes an outstanding tall, dense hedge. I should note that although Chinese photinia fruits are virtually identical in their appearance to those of toyon, local wildlife hardly takes notice of them; this is one of the arguments advanced for planting natives, if you enjoy having a wildlife-friendly garden, as opposed to planting their imported cousins.
Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) is another large shrub or small tree that is seldom seen but deserves greater gardener recognition. It is not picky about soil type and has charming three-lobed leaves in addition to its pome fruits. For hundreds of years, hawthorn has been recognized in Europe as an herbal treatment for heart and blood circulation problems. Modern research and clinical studies have verified the efficacy of longstanding folk medicine practices involving hawthorn, especially in regard to the utilization of extracts from its leaves.
Cotoneaster (kuh-toe-nee-ASS-ter) is a plant for all seasons and has always been one of my favorites. I have never seen it do anything but thrive, and with a minimum of water, to boot. Although a very leafy plant, I have never seen any sign of wilt, disease or insect pests. If plants could talk, cotoneaster would never complain.
Cotoneaster is a plant for four seasons. It is covered with white apple blossom flowers in the spring, shows off its bright red fruit in late summer, fall and winter, and displays dense, stem-hugging foliage all year long.
There is much to learn from this plant. Despite having minimal needs, it gives nonstop and has a pleasant demeanor at all times. Or, perhaps you could say that because it has minimal needs, it is always giving and smiling and has no sense of entitlement.
Cotoneaster species are highly variable and there is probably one for you, whatever your garden needs might be. There are giant cotoneasters (Cotoneaster lacteus) that grow into fountainesque shrubs over eight feet tall and may serve as a screen or tall hedge all the way down to ground-hugging cotoneaster mats (Cotoneaster dammeri).
I am especially partial to a species that grows into a low hedge. It is known as rockspray cotoneaster (Cotoneaster microphyllus), with leaves that are 1/3-inch. Tiny, sessile fruit grows all along its shoots and is abundantly visible, in vivid red, even when shearing is performed on a regular basis.
Pyracantha or firethorn, like cotoneaster, is a pome fruit genus that includes species of varying heights. Its name combines its outstanding characteristics — pyr- is from pyro, meaning fire, and -acantha is from acanthus, meaning thorn. The fruit of pyracantha is either fiery red or glowing orange, both conjuring up longed-for heat on cold winter days. If you have a slope that you want to cover with plants but have budgetary constraints, I recommend planting a few traditional pyracantha shrubs (Pyracantha coccinea) that may reach up to 20 feet tall, and then just let them go. Pyracantha plants grow quickly and seeds germinate after their fruits pass through the gut of birds. You will soon have pyracantha seedlings popping up all over your slope. Pyracantha may also be planted as a living security fence due to its formidable thorns.
It should be mentioned that all of the above pome plants have massive flower displays, always in white, prior to fruit development. Toyon, photinia, hawthorn, cotoneaster, and pyracantha are spring bloomers and their fruits develop throughout the spring and summer months. A bacterial disease known as fireblight will occasionally visit some of these species. The bacteria enter through flowers and turn shoots brown and then black. Dipping pruning shears in a Clorox bleach solution when cutting off affected shoots will help prevent spread of the disease.
When it comes to fruit-bearing California natives, none can top the elderberries. Five species are native to California, yielding generous platters of white flower clusters followed by ample red, blue, or black fruit, depending on the species. The most commonly seen among this group is blue elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea). It demonstrates a phenomenal rate of growth, reaching a height of 15 feet, planted from a one-gallon container, in a few years, eventually growing up to 30 feet tall. It handles both moist and dry soils and both sunny and shady exposures. It will lose its leaves in hot weather when deprived of summer irrigation, although it does not require more than a single monthly soaking once established.
Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolia), as its name suggests, bears long clusters of purple fruit, making it a must-have selection for wildlife gardens. The fruit is preceded by impressive arrays of golden flowers. Mature height is six feet. Nevin’s barberry (Berberis/Mahonia nevinii) is a related species, only larger, roughly ten feet high and wide, blanketed with yellow flowers followed by scads of bird-pleasing red fruit. Nevin’s barberry is endemic to Southern California and is endangered. Of the 21 remaining populations, nearly all have less than 20 individual plants, and some have less than five. Nevin’s barberry makes an excellent living fence due to its spiny foliage. If anyone knows of a nursery with Nevin’s barberry plants currently available for sale, please advise so I can pass the information along to readers of this column.
Tip of the Week: Sky flower (Duranta erecta) has an overwhelming display of pale orange fruit this time of year. Keep in mind that prior to the fruit, there was a massive display of flowers on long stems. The name sky flower, however, is not in any way a reference to this plant’s stature, which is more on the scale of a large shrub than of a tree, but rather to the color of its hanging clusters of lavender-blue flowers. It also grows rapidly, reaching a mature height of 20 feet in a few years. Varieties whose flowers are either white or purple with white trim are also available, as is ‘Gold Mound,’ a dwarf cultivar that grows only 18 inches tall. There is also green and gold variegated cultivar that eventually reaches nine feet tall but is often kept as a low hedge.
Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com.
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Why this fruit-bearing California native plant is great for your garden - OCRegister
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