Mellow Fruitfulness

Seed pods of Bracychiton populneus - the Árbol Botella or Kurrajong

It's well and truly Autumn now - my last sunbathing sesh was a fortnight ago, we're closing the doors to the balcony at night and sweet potatoes and chestnuts are being roasted on street corners on home-made braziers.  

And like many neighbourhoods in Barcelona we have a great collection of trees both exotic and indigenous that are now bearing some fruit - often strange. The Ajuntament de Barcelona - our town council - takes urban arbres  very seriously and even has a coffee-table style book featuring some of the most notable example of our leafy streets. There is a conscious effort by the planners to plant unusual species as streets and other urban areas are tarted up, so we have a really amazing selection.

I think I read somewhere that Poble Sec itself - excluding Montjüic - had seven trees in total about 100 years ago. Well it's done some catching up since then. Here are a few strange fruits I picked up around the barri. And I'm not talking about La Fontaine's clientele, or indeed Juan the barman .

Magnolia fruit, Montjüic

Fruit of the Naranjo de Luisiana, aka Osage-orange horseapple or Bois D'Arc

Latin binominal: Maclura pomifera.

El pebrer bord

 The Peruvian Pepper (Schinus molle, also known as American pepper, Peruvian peppertree, escobilla, false pepper, molle del Peru, pepper tree,peppercorn tree, Californian pepper tree, pirul and Peruvian mastic.)