Good day... first time post... have a tree located in San Jose Ca. I need an ID. I would appreciate any help, a customer really likes it and so I would like to use it in So Cal if possible.
Your friend may wish to choose for himself. Arbutus unedo is a species, Marina is a cross (not a cultivar). Based on the view of the plant provided here, he would probably like either one - so can choose for height.
'Marina' has larger parts, hence coarser aspect than pink forms of A. unedo. The latter also do not produce the smooth, reddish bark that 'Marina' may display - as in above photo. Cultivar is based on a tree of unknown parentage growing in San Francisco and thought to have been imported from Europe during 1917. Was propagated by a nursery in the Marina district, dispersed locally for a time before being named 'Marina' and reintroduced many years later, during 1984 by Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. Has since become prevalent in the West Coast trade.
Clearly this is a juvenile plant - the features it may express at maturity completely unknown based on this photo. So far, the traits desired by this customer have not been expressed. For example, were this client given the broadest range of attributes contained in Arbutus, they might select a species which attracts wildlife. Wendy Cutler contributed a photo of A. unedo , illustrating the characteristic peeling bark with a reddish tone in the freshly revealed layer. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arbutus_unedo_off_Bayshore_Drive_at_Coal_Harbour.jpg San Marcos growers, who widely distribute the cross, gives an account.
I see all the basic attributes, including the reddish bark sometimes displayed by 'Marina' in the poster's photo. I do not see any trunks at the wikimedia page you linked to. If your first point is that the specimen asked about is actually an example of A. unedo I cannot agree. In addition to the habit, bark, leaves and flowers beng those I have seen being produced by 'Marina' I have never seen A. unedo produce colorful, smooth bark. Here is a depiction from a quality reference produced by a serious researcher: "Bark brown-gray and shreddy, not strikingly handsome as on all the other Arbutus species" --Arthur Lee Jacobson, North American Landscape Trees, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 1996
Note that when it fruits those can be messy, if that would be of concern to you. 'Marina' is expected to grow into a tree of some size, well over 40 ft. tall - where conditions permit.
I'm not familiar with 'Marina' but those pink flowers and the red-brown bark look a lot like Arbutus canariensis to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a unedo/canariensis cross and that it's heterosis that's responsible for the larger size.
Two possible involvements that have been mentioned are A. x andrachnoides and A. canariensis. I haven't noticed any indications of DNA work having been done or discovery of the European history of the clone having occurred - the public knowledge about the pre-California background of this tree (including its hybrid parentage) may have never moved beyond speculation. I did once see an obviously incorrect photo in a European guidebook captioned "Arbutus unedo" that may have been showing the same tree as 'Marina'; it seems perfectly plausible that if you look around in the right part of the Old World the same tree that is being called 'Marina' here is all over the place.
