Plant · P-494

Cherry Of The Rio Grande

Eugenia involucrata

Cherry Of The Rio Grande is a slow-growing evergreen tree from the semi-deciduous forests of southern South America that stays small enough to keep in a large tub. It yields a dark red to purple fruit with a sweet, subacid cherry flavor, eaten fresh or made into jam, jelly, juice, preserves and liqueur - and it carries so much natural pectin that the jam sets without anything added. Its one hard limit is winter cold: mature trees survive only to about -6 C, with no ability to resprout a fruiting crown after a freeze the way some of its relatives can, so anywhere colder it needs to spend winter under cover.