Loquat 'Christmas' (Eriobotrya japonica)

The Christmas Loquat variety is one of our all-time favorites! The fruit is extremely large and flavorful. It's a slightly deeper orange than other Loquat varieties and has fewer seeds.

The Loquat tree is a fast-growing, cold hardy, ornamental, fruiting, and medicinal landscape tree with a beautiful tropical look. This evergreen tropical to subtropical fruit tree tree has deep green leaves and delicious golden-yellow fruit.  It blooms highly fragrant flowers in the winter and produces and abundance of sweet, tangy golden-yellow fruit in large loose clusters throughout the Spring. 

It is an excellent natural source of sugars, and the fruit is high in pectin making it great for jellies and jams. Loquat leaves can be harvested year round to make tea. The leaves and fruit have been used as traditional medicine for thousands of years.

Commonly referred to as Japanese Plum, Loquat is native to China and Japan, where it grows wild, is from the rose, apple, and pear family of plants. Loquat trees can live outdoors without protection in Zone 7. If your area is too cold to grow Loquat's outdoors year-round, the plants can easily be overwintered indoors and will grow and produce abundantly for decades in containers.