Plant: Holly-leaf cherry or Catalina island cherry...

I spotted a couple of these medium-sized trees with dark green leaves near our house in San Diego and got curious about their identity.....

..In March, they bloomed profusely..
“In the cherry blossom’s shade there’s no such thing as a stranger,” the great Japanese poet Issa wrote. Of course, it is pertaining to the other type of cherry........

Only when they developed berries which turned crimson in summer, I got to know them. Yes, they are Catalina island cherry....a variety of cherry...

The drupes are the size of cherries, but the pits are too big to eat the skinny pulp..

I learnt, these plants abound in the Channel islands and foxes play crucial role in their dispersal....

The drupes are ripening in luscious clusters in Mission Valley area of San Diego....

I am not sure of their human food potential...I have tried some of them..with a big pit, thin pulp of mild sweetness and strong astringency, it does not hold much attraction...

But for birds like finch, sparrow and oriole...its manna from heaven..and that's reason enough to have them, apart from their deep green foliage amidst parched chaparral..

These wild cherry plants grow in ravines of chaparrals, that is why I get to see many of them by the creek and riparian regions of San Diego river...to survive in fire-prone chaparral, it has huge root burls...the food reserves of which can be used to recuperate after fire....