Cross Grattan Street and continue north on Shrader.
As you approach Parnassus Avenue, on the west side of the street at 1103 Shrader is a large strawberry tree, a hybrid of two European species. The scientific name is Arbutus X ‘Marina’. The fruits of this tree start out green, then turn yellow, then orange, and finally red – which is a visual signal to birds that the fruit is ripe. The birds eat the fruits, but the seeds remain intact when they come out the other end of the birds’ digestive tract, somewhere far from the mother tree. It’s an example of a symbiotic relationship between tree and bird – the bird gets food, and the tree gets dispersal of its seeds.
