The Astonishing Variety of Street Trees in Hackney, London

The strawberry tree on Arbutus Street, in the London borough of Hackney, looks unremarkable for most of the year. Then, in the fall, bright-red fruits appear, dimpled and dangling in bunches inside a bushy canopy of glossy leaves and bell-shaped flowers. We don’t know who planted the tree and its sickly sister just along the sidewalk, but their location is apt. What better place than Arbutus Street, that person might have thought, for a tree whose scientific name is Arbutus unedo? There are over 8 million trees in London, an…

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