It blooms in the autumn and fruits in the spring although I think there is also another variety here that does it the opposite way round. We only have the autumn flowering variety. The fruits are quite apricot like, orange and juicy but with several small brown shiny nut-like seeds inside. It's leaves are evergreen, there is a Telegraph article here about the nispero likening the leaves to a sweet chestnut on steroids! They are thick and long and very dark green.
We did wonder what the English name for the fruit was, out came the fruit and vegetable gardening book and on the same page as the Quince, which we have here, was a Medlar. Although the fruits in the photo were browner that ours, they do go brown if left on the tree, so for the last 9 years we've thought it was a Medlar.
Until today that is when I was looking for a photo online that I could use here of the fruits and their seeds. The Wikipedia info about the Medlar describes them as 'deciduous large shrubs .....with five petalled white flowers produced in late spring' neither of which sounds like our trees..... the leaves turn red in autumn before falling' um, no.
Carry on reading and we come 'related plants' and mention of the loquat, sometimes known as a medlar or Japanese medlar. New search on Wikipedia for loquat and this sounds more like it....'large evergreen shrub or small tree, leaves are 10–25 cm long, dark green, tough and leathery' 'The flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance'. Yes, most definitely yes. 'The flavor is a mix of peach, citrus and mild mango.' I would have said more like an apricot but maybe that's just my taste buds.
So we've learnt something new today, and it's only taken 9 and a bit years!
Awesome! Thanks for the article. I know it's old, but you just identified these trees in my new neighborhood (Sacramento area) that I've been trying to figure out. Their fragrance in December was really impressive!
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