Hi, I am a newbie. I see this plant all the time in Seattle and I don't know what it is? Are the fruits edible? Thanks for your help.
And yes they are edible--with mixed reviews. http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?latinname=Arbutus+unedo
They can be delicious, or nearly pernicious. If not fully ripe, the latter, but the ripe fruit (at it's best) is sweet and flavourful. It might well vary from tree to tree, and I've noticed better tasting fruit in locations where they get a lot of reflected heat (here in the Northwest, at anyways). There's certainly enough sugar in them: fruits that are left on the tree can ferment and become alcoholic. The coat of arms for the city of Madrid depicts a bear on it's hind legs eating the fruit from an arbutus unedo, and it has been suggested that this is not in fact a hungry bear, but a drunken one: http://www.letsgo.com/meg-bernhard/2014/6/5/a-drunk-bear-in-puerta-del-sol So why not wait another month, let it ferment a little, then give one a try. Live, for a winter's afternoon, like a drunken Spanish bear.
Words to live by! Or, like its Canadian counterpart: http://globalnews.ca/news/1583781/wandering-port-coquitlam-bear-not-drunk-just-fat-and-lazy/
