I had a lovely walk this morning with a friend and her Springer Spaniel, Maddie. The sun shone in a beautiful blue sky and it was warm enough for us to sit outside to drink our tea and coffee afterwards and enough children eating snacks to keep Maddie’s nose twitching with anticipation of a stray crumb or two coming her way. Alas, she was disappointed. Here’s Maddie carefully watching for crumbs. Isn’t she pretty?
I’ve noticed more berries on the trees this year than I ever have before and while waiting for Maddie to finish drinking from a puddle, I saw a tree I hadn’t seen before: the strawberry tree (arbutus unedo) but I only know that’s what it was because there was a name plate on the trunk – I confess to being fairly very ignorant when it comes to identifying plants and trees. When I got home I looked in my tree book and found, “The bell-like flowers appear in the autumn, while the red strawberry-like fruits from the previous year are still ripening.” and “The ripe fruits are not as palatable as the name suggests – the species name unedo comes from the latin words un edo, ‘I eat one (only)’ “. The unripe fruits are hard (even on the inside), unlike the ripe ones, one of which got squished in my pocket as I got into the car so you’ll have to settle for close-ups of the green fruit only.
I didn’t see the snail until I was right over the top of the seed head. And yes, you’re right, I don’t know what plant this is nor what species of snail is on it.