the.com/loquat
the fruit that flowers in winter and dares the frost to stop it
means A small, sweet-tart yellow-orange fruit from an evergreen tree native to East Asia, which unusually blooms in autumn or winter and ripens in spring.
from From Cantonese, where the name is rendered in Chinese characters meaning roughly 'reed orange' — the same characters read 'lu ju' in Mandarin. English picked up the word in the 19th century by way of the Cantonese pronunciation, so the fruit carries its southern-Chinese voice into other languages.
- blooms backwards
- flowers in autumn, fruits in spring
- secret cousin
- belongs to the rose family
- slow seed
- each fruit hides one to several huge seeds
- ancient roots
- cultivated in China for over a thousand years
- other name
- called Japanese plum despite Chinese origins
loquat trees of japan — nagasaki prefecture produces over 60% of japan's loquats, cultivated since the 17th century
eriobotrya japonica — the scientific name for common loquat, native to china and japan, now grown commercially across mediterranean
loquat festival tanabe — annual harvest celebration in tanabe, wakayama, japan, featuring the locally-prized fruit