When Spanish
missionary monk Father Juan Crespi saw strawberry trees on the Pacific coast of
North America, he recognized them imediately as relatives of the Spanish
madrono. Crespi was part of an expedition to find the legendary Bay of Monterey
and establish Jesuit settlements there.
After traveling for months the expedition
successfully planted a cross at Monterey and set up a mission in the Carmel
Valley. In his diary Crespi noted that
he saw “Many madronos, though with smaller fruit than the Spanish trees.” That’s
where our name, madrone, originated.
From Lives of the Trees by Diana Wells, 2010.
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