The "other" loquat. Planted more often now than the edible one, its grown for the new bronze foliage and its nice shape. Plants are small, rarely reaching 20' tall with an almost equal spread forming a nice rounded to spreading and layered rounded dense canopy.
Leaves are evergreen, 8" long, narrowly elliptical to lanceolate shaped with very large serrated margins. They emerge a beautiful copper red color and fade to green late summer.
The new foliage is held very vertical for a long time. Makes for a pretty cool sight.
Stems are stout, brown, not overly interesting. Foliage tends to be clustered near the ends of the branches.
Trunk is brown, more or less smooth.
The bronze loquat produces lots of flowers and very few fruit. The small flowers (1/4 - 1/2") are borne in small clusters in early spring.
Misidentification:
Maybe a Chinese Photinia, with the new leaves showing purple and serrated margins. The Chinese photinia has much larger flower clusters.
Location:
Aptos
Center Ave between Broadway and East in SeaScape.
Santa Cruz
Across the street from Mission Plaza.
