Wanted: Temperate Eriobotrya species - East Asia

[Patanax]

I may be able to get some seed of E. hookeriana - but not any time soon, probably next year. I'll also keep an eye out for any loquats growing at their Southern limit here.

Hello JSea,
that's great to hear
Are you visiting China or the Himalaya region or do you know a botanical garden in your area that has them?
Definitely keep us updated on the progress. If you're able to aquire seeds, I'd love to buy some from you

Is there a nursery in Spain which is offering Piera?

Sadly I haven't been able to find a nursery which offers Piera. As the variety is grown in Italy and Spain, I think reaching out to private collectors that are located there and that are growing named varieties would be the best bet.

I will post an update regarding my progress in the next few days.

[JSea]

Hello JSea,
that's great to hear
Are you visiting China or the Himalaya region or do you know a botanical garden in your area that has them?
Definitely keep us updated on the progress. If you're able to aquire seeds, I'd love to buy some from you

It's from a botanic garden quite a few hours away. I'm also close to the Southern limit of loquat growth here so will also keep an eye out for very tough trees dealing with hard frosts.

[Patanax]

So here is the promised update

Considering that it will probably take a while before I can find a source for wild Eriobotrya species, I've been going through the previous papers and taking notes to get a better picture and to better know what to keep an eye out for. I've also found three new papers which are relevant for this project.

The first one highlights the close relationship between Eriobotrya and Rhaphiolepis, even suggesting that Eriobotrya should be nested within Rhaphiolepis.

Eriobotrya Belongs to Rhaphiolepis (Maleae, Rosaceae): Evidence From Chloroplast Genome and Nuclear Ribosomal DNA Data
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01731/full

The second paper seems to confirm this close relationship, as it describes artificial hybrids between Rhaphiolepis and Eriobotrya. After all, the "Coppertone" loquat is most likely also a hybrid between R. indica and E. deflexa.

Possibility of intergeneric hybrids between loquat (Eriobotrya japonica lindl.) and other Rosaceae plants:
https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=JP2008008365

The third paper is probably the most exciting, as it describes a technique which could enable new combinations when hybridizing different Eriobotrya species. Considering the number of recent Chinese papers that talk about hybridizing wild Eriobotrya species with E. japonica to shift the flowering time to spring, I truly believe that we will see a new generation of spring-flowering loquat cultivars in the coming years.

Cut-style Pollination Can Effectively Overcome Prefertilization Barriers of Distant Hybridization in Loquat
https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/55/3/article-p287.xml

With these papers in mind, I've been looking at the different genera which are closely related to Eriobotrya. The most closely related genera according to several papers are Rhaphiolepis, Heteromeles, Photinia and Stranvaesia. I am currently collecting different promising species and varieties. So far I have:

Eriobotrya deflexa (Small seedling)
Eriobotrya japonica (5x 8yo seedling trees)
Eriobotrya japonica 'Tanaka'
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Photinia niitakayamensis
Photinia prionophylla
Photinia serratifolia 'Crunchy'
Photinia villosa var. maximowicziana
Photinia x dummeri 'Winchester'
Photinia x fraseri 'Faros Red' & 'Chico'
Rhaphiolepis indica 'Spring Time'
Rhaphiolepis umbellata
xRhaphiobotrya 'Coppertone'

So far only R. indica and R. umbellata have flowered. I have saved pollen from both of them and will attempt to pollinate E. japonica flowers if my seedling trees or E. japonica "Tanaka" flower this year. I am also in contact with two people that have Eriobotrya species besides E. japonica/deflexa. I've asked them for seeds/plant material and will hopefully hear from them if their trees flower/fruit this year.

PS: A curiosity I came across
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/botbel/plecevo/2014/00000147/00000001/art00012 (click download)

[mikkel]

Found this one on another forum:
https://citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/thread/126/christmas-loquat?page=1&scrollTo=952

it is Loquat "Christmas"

the owner says it flowers in spring

[NateTheGreat]

Found this one on another forum:
https://citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/thread/126/christmas-loquat?page=1&scrollTo=952

it is Loquat "Christmas"

the owner says it flowers in spring

Maybe he is in the southern hemisphere.

[mikkel]

He is living in the eastern US

[Francis_Eric]

Great post Patanax

Do you think they could cross with a apple maybe even a hawthorn
(since pear pyrus and sorbus mountain ash (rowan berry) cross making a shipova maybe it is possible)

I am wanting loquat pollen as they are flowering now
I would pay Cash ?

I know they saw copper tone is a ornamental most likely but what do those berries taste like I wonder
I do not listen to what is edible online (as loquats are listed in peoples opinions as not edible online)

I will be going to Raleigh North Carolina in a week anyone know of a tree nearby let me know.

[Francis_Eric]

With these papers in mind, I've been looking at the different genera which are closely related to Eriobotrya. The most closely related genera according to several papers are Rhaphiolepis, Heteromeles, Photinia and Stranvaesia.

I will have to look into the species you mentioned
So quickly reading a few seconds I see Photinia is close with the Aronia berry

When I have more time I will look into it I have the whole winter (that is If I source pollen)
but loquat with aronia that would be interesting wonder if Firethorn down south would cross.

If I did try I would dillute pollen with bread flour to extend it as only one pollen grain needs to make a seed and try different stuff.

[D-Grower]

I've heard you can graft loquat on firethorn. I'm gonna try it eventually. There's a wild firethorn bush down the street from me if there's any interest in the seeds. Berries on it now. Have a few growing from last year's seeds for my own projects. Be awesome to have a severely dwarfed but yet highly productive quality fruiting loquat.

[Bush2Beach]

Thats what Quince is for too , if that one grows easily at your location as well.

I've heard you can graft loquat on firethorn. I'm gonna try it eventually. There's a wild firethorn bush down the street from me if there's any interest in the seeds. Berries on it now. Have a few growing from last year's seeds for my own projects. Be awesome to have a severely dwarfed but yet highly productive quality fruiting loquat.

[mikkel]

Eriobotrya "Rose Anne" is supposed to flower in spring.
Novak and Shambala are supposed to flower constantly so there will be some flowers in spring too.
I will get Rose Anne soon.

[Adam8aTexas]

There's a deflexa tree at the dallas arboretum, it fruits and is pretty big, maybe I'll be able to try it sometime.

[mikkel]

Are there any commercial sources for deflexa?

[mikkel]

 Do you have any news on this topic?
Finally a received a Rose Anne. It started to flower around Christmas but lost it due to cold weather. I am eager to see if it will flower a second time in spring as promised.

[vnomonee]

"Novak" is said to flower multiple times so in the spring as well. Unfortunately the scions were sent to me so late, practically in the fall, so I didn't get a graft to take on my loquat seedling. Which then also killed the entire plant because I topped it for the graft.

I grafted a bud to an outdoor apple tree as an experiment which looks like it healed. We'll see in the spring if it grows at all.

[mikkel]

Are there sources for Novak and Shambala in Europe?

[vnomonee]

I've seen atleast one of the two for sale on online European nurseries, don't remember which as I live in the US and didn't make a note of it. There is one youtube gardener based in the UK who has a Rose Anne which is also said to flower multiple times, maybe you can ask him where he got it "Joes Tropicals" he has a video of it blooming in middle of August (summer)

Are there sources for Novak and Shambala in Europe?

[mikkel]

I meanwhile have a Rose-Anne and a Piera. Piera bloomed in July and is no longer mature before winter. If it always flowers like this, I assume it's an early-flowering variety rather than a late-flowering one.

I'm still looking for E.prinoides, but no chance. Even google only lists a few hits. All in Asia.

[JSea]

I managed to visit Eriobotrya hookeriana, and grow some seedlings. Attempted few grafts from the parent tree, but not expecting them to take as the grafts were not performed in optimal conditions.

[mikkel]

A New Spring Flowering Loquat Cultivar‘Chunhua 1’

https://www.ahs.ac.cn/EN/10.16420/j.issn.0513-353x.2021-0430

[fanshiliu]

So I wrote the corresponding author of the paper "Identification of interspecific hybrids between loquat (E. japonica) and bengal loquat (E. bengalensis)" and asked him about the progress of the project. While he is already working in another area, he sent me a link to a news article.

Original: https://sichuan.scol.com.cn/yaxw/201806/56299857.html
Google Translate: https://translate.google.at/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsichuan.scol.com.cn%2Fyaxw%2F201806%2F56299857.html

Apparently the hybrid trees mentioned in the paper have already flowered and fruited twice and produced tasty loquats. From what I've understood via Google/Bing Translate, they flower in March (the text also mentions April?) and produce fruit in June. Their current temporary cultivar name is "Spring Blossoms" loquat ('春花'枇杷) and the trees are located at the scientific research park of Sichuan Agricultural University. The team is currently trying to graft them on regular loquat cultivars. Can anybody who speaks Chinese confirm (regarding April)?

So I guess there are spring-blooming loquats now

“三月开花，四月结果，六月成熟”
Flowering in March, fruiting in April, ripening in June

[mikkel]

Hi Gaelle, why do you think that? It would be nice to get some other species, but these are very rare to find, even in botanical gardens most are unknown. only Kew has some other species.