loquat fruiting in warm gardens across the north

Size
Height: 5–10 m
Lifespan
30–50 years
Diet
Not applicable (tree)
Habitat
Old gardens, hedgerows, roadsides, and waste places in warm, temperate areas. Prefers mild winters and warm summers. Grows best in fertile, well-drained soils with full sun. Often naturalised near old houses in northern regions.
Range
Cultivated throughout northern New Zealand. Naturalised in old gardens, hedgerows, and waste places in Northland, Auckland, and Bay of Plenty. Originally from China and Japan.
Endemism
Introduced
Main Threats
No significant conservation threats as this is an introduced species. Wild seedlings compete with native vegetation in northern forests. Birds disperse the seeds, aiding naturalisation. Climate change may expand suitable habitat southward.
Population
Loquat trees are widely cultivated and naturalised in northern New Zealand. The species is common in old gardens and waste places in Northland and Auckland. It is not grown commercially but is popular in home gardens.
Conservation Status
Not Threatened
A tree of the northern garden. The loquat was brought to New Zealand by early European settlers, planted in sheltered gardens in the warm north. Now it grows wild in old gardens, along hedgerows, in waste places, a flash of tropical green in the landscape. The loquat is an evergreen tree, reaching up to ten metres in height, with a rounded crown and dark, fissured bark. The leaves are large, glossy, and deeply veined, up to 25 centimetres long. They are dark green on top and rusty brown underneath, a tree that looks like it belongs in a warmer place. The flowers are the story – small, white, and fragrant, appearing in autumn, filling the air with a sweet scent. The fruit is the prize – the loquat, yellow and fuzzy, sweet and tangy, the taste of spring. In New Zealand, loquats are grown in the north, in Northland and Auckland and the Bay of Plenty. They escape from cultivation, spreading by seed, forming clumps in old gardens and waste places. These wild loquats are living history, a reminder of the settlers who planted them, the gardens they made. The loquat is unusual. It flowers in autumn and fruits in spring. The fruit ripens in early spring, when little else is available. The birds love it – the tūī, the silvereye, the blackbird – and they spread the seeds across the landscape. To see a loquat in fruit is to see a piece of history. The settlers who planted it are gone, but the tree remains. It flowers every autumn, fruits every spring, holds its leaves all winter. It does not know that it is a stranger here. It just grows, and blooms, and feeds the birds. The loquat is not a native. It is not endemic. It is an immigrant, a settler, a tree that made a new home in a new land. It has been here for two hundred years. It will be here as long as the north stays warm.