Loquats

Loquats are a much undervalued tree, and so despised because they are attractive to Queensland fruit fly. But let's look at their good points!!!

• They are quite drought-resistant once established.

• They stay nice and evergreen, in winter, when so much else is all bare and deciduous.

• They bloom in mid to late winter, when there isn't much perfume around. They have a very nice fragrance.

• Their flowers are attractive to honeyeaters. Most fruit trees' blossoms don't attract honeyeaters. (Almond blossom is another exception.) Any source of nectar is welcomed by hungry birds in the colder months.

• The baby leaves are soft and furry to the touch, which is nice.

• They are a shapely and attractive tree.

• If you pick the fruits just as they begin to change from green to yellow--just before the fruit flies ''sting'' them--the fruits make an excellent pickle. Indeed, the best sweet mustard pickle I have ever tasted, in my entire lifetime, was made with greenish loquats as the main ''vegetable'' ingredient. So they are useful; and a more drought-resistant food source than, say, most of the common orchard fruits. They don't have to be harvested for ripe fruits alone, but can, thus, be grown specially for unripe fruits. This does defy ordinary thinking, though, which says that fruits are ''supposed'' to ripen fully.

• The ripe fruits are enjoyed by native birds.

• Native butterflies like to suck sweetness from where the birds have pecked on the fruits.

• Freshly cut branches of ripe, juicy loquats (and cumquats, too!) make attractive and colourful table decorations--and interesting conversation pieces. Your dinner party guests will be delighted to pluck and peel fresh fruit, themselves, straight from the tree!