2014-11-15-15.52.59 ZS PMax Heteromeles arbutifolia-1

Heteromeles arbutifolia—Christmas berry. Christmas berry is important as one of the first California plants to gain legal protection. It was subject of a 1920s law aimed at reining in the unrestricted overharvesting of berry-bearing branches during Christmas season. Willis L. Jepson, showing the prejudices of his time, wrote in the _Flora of California_, "In the years of 1911 and 1912 and thereabouts most of the stock for the San Francisco Market came from the region of Tuolumne County. With proper care of the shrubs the quality of the berries as a rule improves as a result of harvest pruning, but the Tuolumne region was so ill-treated by the Italian gatherers that the district ceased for some years to be a source of supply." The plant is in a private garden in Berkeley, CA.

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