When in Madrid, I read in some brochure that the emblem of the city was a bear mounting a strawberry tree. Here in California the only straw berries I have seen are on bushes that grow along the ground. Did I read wrongly or is there some other explanation.

Strawberries grow on the ground in Spain too, not on trees. I'm not sure how that translation got started but the berries in the berry tree with the bear leaning against is not a strawberry tree but a madroño tree and its fruit are the fruit of the madroño, not strawberries.

I too have seen this translation as "The bear and the strawberry tree" many many times and it always vexes me.

Saludos, MadridMan

According to my Lonely Planet guide, the reason the madroño is called a "strawberry tree" in English is that the fruit of a madroño looks like a strawberry. Haven't seen the fruit of the madroño myself, so I guess I'll take their word for it.

well, it's like a red ball a little bit smaller than a strawberry. Here there's a photo

arbutua uneda (Latin :Small tree I eat one (only)).
Apparently there is some difference in opinion as to whether the fruit is nice tasting.

http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/straw_tree.html

Thanks for that photo, Miguelito. They don't look like any strawberries *I'VE* ever seen before. hehehe.. ;P I'm still vexed as to how this got started.

Saludos, MadridMan

Madroño is a wild fruit, soft and yellow inside, covered with tiny red diamond sort of seed delicate sweet/acid taste.. sometime sold on the street in Andalucia..they sell them on sticks kebab style.

I've tasted them and are very sweet. I've a madroño in my garden!

I has nothing to do with a strawberry though.

Fernando

Grulla, we have the very same tree here in the Southwest, but I've never seen any fruit on them. Berries are scarce as hen's teeth around here and the animals get to the fruit long before we get up the mountain! The bark of the madroño is very red, so it looks like a giant manzanita.

Well, the Grulla will just have to fly back to Espana to eat the fruit of the modrono tree. How do you folks get the tilde (~) over some of
your letters. Do you have spanish keyboards ?