Chilean myrtle

Photo: user:Alfonso" — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Black to purple berries with an intense, aromatic flavor reminiscent of blueberry and myrtle, sometimes described as having a slightly resinous finish — eaten fresh, though reported quality varies from plant to plant, ranging from merely fair to genuinely excellent.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Evergreen shrub/tree 4–10 m

Light

Full sun to partial (forest species)

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (acid–neutral; dislikes chalk)

Environment

Temperate rainforest

Native range

Temperate forests of central and southern Chile and adjacent south-west Argentina

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, small, ovate with an abruptly pointed (apiculate) tip, 1–2.5 cm long, dark glossy green, leathery and aromatic when crushed.

Root system

Fibrous and surface-feeding, on constantly moist humus-rich soils in habitat; shallow enough that it dislikes drought and hot dry root runs. Suckers modestly from the base, which is how it builds its characteristic multi-stemmed form.

Fruit description

Round berry about 1 cm across, ripening purple-black in autumn after the summer flowers, sweet and aromatic with a flavour close to blueberry with a myrtle-spice edge. The tree is grown at least as much for its bark — sinuous cinnamon-orange trunks flaking to white patches.

Propagation

Semi-ripe cuttings in late summer with bottom heat, or fresh seed. Self-sown seedlings appear freely where it is happy, and it can naturalise in mild oceanic climates.

Pollination

Self-fertile

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.