Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



117 



Toyon or Christmas Berry 

 ( Heteromeles arbutifolia Roemer) 



By Bertha M. Rice 



The beautiful Toyon or Christmas Berry tree is one of the most 

 singularly attractive and characteristic features of California, giving 

 a rich flame of color to our otherwise flowerless roadsides at this 

 season of the year. The cheerful scarlet berries, which contrast so 

 beautifully with their evergreen foliage, are frequently called Cali- 

 fornia Holly and prove almost irresistible to the crowds of hikers 

 and automobilists, who have wellnigh exterminated the bushes in 

 certain localities. This important phase of the subject is taken up in 

 considerable detail in the next chapter. 



Toyon comes from 

 the Mexican pronun- 

 ciation of the -Spanish 

 tollon. The plant is 

 a member of the Rose 

 Family and is a cousin 

 to the roses, plums, 

 peaches, apples, cher- 

 ries, almonds, straw- 

 berries, blackberries, 

 of cultivation, and to 

 the wild varieties. It 

 is related to the Oso 

 berry, chokecherry, 

 service berry, thimble 

 berry, salmon berry, 

 western mountain ash, 

 mountain mahogany, 

 meadow sweet, bitter- 

 brush, nine-bark, pur- 

 ple avens, ladies' man- 

 tle, and the famous 

 chamisel or grease- 

 wood. The Toyon 

 bushes are practically 

 confined to California. 

 They are more com- 

 mon to the chaparral 

 belt of the Coast 

 Ranges and may be found from Southern California to Humboldt 

 County and are occasionally met with in Oregon. They are also 

 found in the Sierras. The bushes grow from five to twenty or 

 more feet high, and when unmolested often become very shapely 

 small trees. In remote districts they sometimes attain a height of 

 twenty-five or more feet. The largest Toyon tree that we have any 

 record of is a magnificent specimen, to the left of the palm driveway 

 at Stanford University. It is quite as large as an oak tree. 



