I have to confess that I'm a bit of a fruit nut. It's borderline OCD, but that's why I'm on this forum. =) I assume I'm not alone. =)

So lately I've been enamored by this fruit from China called the myrica rubra aka red bayberry fruit  / yumyum berry / yangmei. China has been growing it for over 2000 yrs but very little is known about the fruit here since it's not commercially available. it is growing in popularity in Australia though.

 
 

At first I was like, hey its just a strawberry tree (arbutus unedo) which grows in the wild here in the PNW. Personally I'm not a fan of the arbutus, it's gritty and has too many seeds to make it an enjoyable fruit to eat.

arbutus unedo (has a yellow pulp)
 

Apparently in China there's a whole industry behind the Myrica Rubra fruit.  I've never had the pleasure of tasting these but some people put the fruit in their top 5 of tasty fruits.

They supposedly are sub tropicals. that require an acidic soil but that zone thing has not stopped us fig growers from growing our sub tropical plants in zone 5 =)

Of course now I want this fruit tree and pretty badly. You can buy seeds online which I've done but only a few California growers have been successful growing them (There's some older posts on Cloud forest that you can google about their experience.

SOOOOOO...

Does anyone have experience with this tree? If not I hope that atleast I've brought more light onto this rare fruit and perhaps more folks will try to grow it and share their experiences on this thread.

http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-quest-grow-red-bayberry-seeds.html

Finally got 1 of 100 seeds of the Myrica Rubra to sprout.

http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2016/08/myrica-rubra-successful-sprout.html
 

Congratulations!  And, no, you are definitely not alone with your obsession.  Had my own just-had-to-have-it this year too.  Good luck with your new baby.

Wow, this is cool. Let us know how it pans out. 

Glad you at least got one to root.  It looks great, looking forward to its' progress under your care. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on getting a seedling! I know that amazing feeling! No, you are not alone! No i will be searching for info on this one too...lol

Ps: Is your variety the "Black" type? I read yhere are a good four varieties.