Loretta Clissold is pictured with the Loquat tree that she donated to the OLLI garden.
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Could the fountain of youth be growing on trees in local gardens? Although the loquat fruit tree is a native of Southeast China, and it eventually spread to Japan where it has been cultivated for more than 1,000 years. It is now grown in Southern gardens without most owners being aware that it is more than just an attractive ornamental tree.
The garden at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the Southern Miss campus has an outstanding flowering loquat. The tree was a gift from OLLI members, Lorette Clissold and her late husband Roger. It had been a seedling growing beneath their fruit-producing loquat in Tomball, Texas. Five years ago when Roger and Lorette decided to move, they dug up a couple of the small trees, planted them in containers and relocated the seedling with them to Hattiesburg.
The loquat is a 12- to 15-foot tall evergreen which presents with a short trunk and an attractive round form. Its dark-green l2-inches long and 4-inches wide leaves are set in a whorled pattern at the tip of its woolly branches. It bears fragrant blooms on stiff stems just beyond the leaves. Because loquats in tropical areas are generally propagated by seed, their fruit production in warmer climates has been greatly improved through hybridization. When grown as ornamental trees in landscapes, loquats are usually grafted onto quince rootstock. Gardeners should transplant loquats in late winter. If the seedlings are placed in full sun, planted in well-drained humus soil, irrigated and mulched they often begin blooming in two to three years.
The tree blooms in the fall and takes 90 days to develop fruit which will not survive long periods of freezing temperatures; therefore, when grown outside it seldom receives the necessary conditions in which to mature. Fortunately, the tree's contribution to longevity, is extracted from its leaves. The tea brewed from dried loquat leaves may assist the human body in releasing antioxidants, thus preventing various diseases, increasing the immunity system and adding years to life expectancy.
It is ironic that a loquat tree (which botanists often refer to as the fountain of youth) is growing in the garden at OLLI where membership is composed of adults 50 and older.
Jeanette Tibbetts lives in Hattiesburg. Email her at firstname.lastname@example.org.