I know that this famous statue in the Puerta del Sol is a great meeting place and is the symbol you see on all of the taxis representing the comunidad de Madrid. I speak some Spanish, so I know that oso is bear. How is madroño translated into English? I have a tour book that calls it a strawberry tree. What the heck is that? In California we have a madrone tree. But the bear doesn't seem to be pawing a madrone.

Will some of you madrileños or madrileño-philes please enlighten me?

Gracias por su ayuda.

Lee

Though I don't know how it translates into english, I can describe how it looks.

A madroño is a tree which has berries about 1 inch of diameter. These berries are orange-red and are very sweety.

It is probably exclusive to Spain.

The bear and the "madroño" are the symbols of Madrid city.

Fernando

I've seen the "Strawberry" translations many many times too but believe this is one of those things where it was translated incorrectly the first time and then that mistake was copied by everyone else.

I don't think it's a strawberry exactly, otherwise it would be called "El Oso y el Arbol de Fresas" or something like that.. Besides, strawberries don't grow on trees, ya' know! hehehe... They're just a specific kind of berry once known in Spain and Madrid in particular but deforestation "took care" of them all and now can only be found in plant nurseries and are still quite rare.

Thank you. I now feel enlightened.

Great responses...

De California al cuarto de baño

Lee

it's only called a strawberry tree because the fruit resembles strawberries