43. Cherry Hinton Cinnamon Arbutus

Striking cinnamon coloured bark ensures a large evergreen tree growing in a suburban Cambridge garden is a local landmark.

On the corner of Mowbray Road and Glebe Road in Cambridge’s Cherry Hinton neighbourhood, a very impressive cinnamon arbutus, or hybrid strawberry tree, grows in a front garden. Just in front of it a bright red pillar box draws attention to its dramatic oxblood coloured bark. It is an unusual tree possessed with hybrid vigour, causing it to grow larger than a regular strawberry tree, one of its parent species.  

Species details

Hybrid strawberry tree
Arbutus x andrachnoides

Where to find it

Mowbray Road, Cambridge CB1 8TH
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Grows in a private garden, visible from the street

Hybrid strawberry tree notes

Being a hybrid, these wonderful but rather rare trees exhibit the vigour associated with inter species hybrids. In this case the parent species are Arbutus unedo, the (relatively) common strawberry tree, and the Greek strawberry tree, A. andrachne. They frequently grow considerably larger than either parent, although A. andrachne is very rare in Britain or Ireland being rather unsuited to the Atlantic climate. The most striking thing about hybrid strawberry trees is their bark, rich red-brown, it peels revealing bright green new bark beneath. When freshly peeled, the effect can be particularly beautiful.

Peeling bark of Arbutus x andrachnoides

Other hybrid trees

21. Headrow Bastard Service Tree

9. Turkey Mill Baobab

32. Millennium Bridge Tree