A year ago I excitedly posted about a seedling loquat tree which was making fruits for the first time, with exceptionally large, delicious loquats. The tree is now ripening its second crop of fruit. I wanted to wait for this year’s fruiting before officially giving it a cultivar name, to make sure the fruits are consistently as big and tasty as its first crop. They are.
Fruits on this tree are big, in the same size range as the largest named-variety loquat cultivars I’ve seen. They are pear shaped, with creamy white flesh, and just one to three seeds per fruit. The taste is really nice, a great balance of sweet and tart, with a rich fruity flavor not quite like any other loquat I’ve eaten. They have a bit of the same peach-orange-apricot flavor of most loquats, but also a distinctive “spritely” taste. I’ve been trying to think of what this flavor reminds me of. Sometimes I think it’s the taste of sweet table grapes mixed with peach, and a spritz of lemon. Other times I think it reminds me of some fruity candy I ate as a kid. Whatever it is, the taste is quite addictive – I keep wanting to eat one of these after another.
I find it’s important with this variety to leave the fruits on the tree long enough for them to develop their full flavor. When the fruits have just turned yellow, they don’t taste like anything special. But if you leave them on the tree for another week or two until they turn from yellow to a yellow-orange shade, that’s when they have developed the full, rich, fruity flavor that’s so special about this cultivar.
A few days ago I brought some of these loquats to local fruit grower Oliver Moore. Oliver has collected and planted out many of the best varieties of loquat that are available in the nursery trade, and his trees are all ripening crops right now. We walked around his property from loquat tree to loquat tree, tasting fruits from all these elite cultivars, comparing their sweetness, tartness, fruity taste elements, flesh-to-seed ratio, and fruit size. Then we tasted the loquats I’d brought from my seedling tree. We both agreed the flavor of the new variety is outstanding, at least as good as the best of the existing named cultivars of loquat, and maybe even better.
So this plant is definitely worth propagating vegetatively as a new fruit cultivar. It needs a name.
I’ve named a few other fruit varieties, usually after the location of the parent tree (‘Turkey Lake’ persimmon, and ‘Sixth Street’ mulberry), or the person who planted the original seedling (‘Anna’ carambola). Since this tree grew from a seed I planted at my own property, the naming possibilities are more wide open.
One of the most remarkable people I’ve met these last few years through Instagram is my friend Ellen Marker, a fruit enthusiast who lives in Norway. Ellen is an eloquent writer, with a unique perspective and a zest for life. She’s like a magnet for attracting kind, caring people. and a community of people has formed around her Instagram account, drawn by her wisdom, good humor, and sense of enjoying life to its fullest. I’ve been amazed by how many people from all over the world have left comments saying how important she has been in their lives.
Ellen’s not one to let living in a cold northern climate stop her from being a tropical fruit enthusiast. She’s posted about tracking down a wide diversity of exotic treats in local Asian markets, including durian, jackfruit, soursop, mangos, and champedak (even I haven’t haven’t gotten to try champedak yet!).
Unfortunately, Ellen has a complex of serious vascular diseases which severely impact her life. She uses a wheelchair, and has repeatedly endured major surgeries. She’s been going through an especially rough time health-wise lately, and hasn’t been able to do much posting in while. She’s getting ready for another big surgery, which has many risks. Here’s hoping Ellen gets through the surgery okay, and that it helps fix some of the issues she’s dealing with.
Of course, Ellen is trying hard not to catch corona virus right now. If you need any additional motivation to practice measures to reduce the spread of this disease, please think of people in fragile health like her.
I’ve asked Ellen for permission to name this fruit variety after her, and she said yes. So in honor of her tremendous enthusiasm for fruits, and for her being a generally great person who’s touched so many lives, I’m naming this cultivar as loquat variety ‘Ellen Marker’.
I am working to vegetatively propagate the tree, both by grafting and air layers, and I’ve shared scion wood with a number of loquat growers.
I don’t have any plants of this variety for sale this year. If all goes well, there might be a small number of plants available in 2021.
Note: The loquat cultivar ‘Ellen Marker’ is a public domain fruit variety, free of any patent or trademark restrictions. If you get material of this cultivar, you are free to propagate it in any quantity. BUT please only use the name ‘Ellen Marker’ for loquat plants that are vegetatively propagated – that means by grafting, air layers or cuttings taken from my original tree, or from trees that were vegetatively propagated from my original tree. Please do not use the name ‘Ellen Marker’ for loquat seedlings, even if they’re seedlings from this variety, because each seedling is its own new variety. If you have a seedling with good fruit, you can give it your own new cultivar name.
To get a feel for Ellen’s warmth and charm, here’s one of my favorite videos she’s made, posted a few years ago at Christmas:
Florida Fruit Geek 
That’s amazing! Thank you for posting and sharing the story behind the named variety!!!
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Thank you for such a nice comment!
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Please add me to your list if you are selling scions. I would love to add Ellen Mark into my collection. I have 3 baby tree varieties so far and haven’t tried the fruit yet. It must have been great to walk around with Oliver and compare varieties!
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Hopefully next year the tree will be big enough to distribute scions. Yes, it’s great to know someone who’s already done the work of collecting those varieties and planting them out, so I can just sample the fruits without having to do any of the work!
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I’m interested in a Ellen loquat tree if available thank you
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Very cool! If you would consider hooking me up with a scion next spring I would greatly appreciate it 🙂
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Yes, I’m trying to take good care of this tree, and I’m planting out the few I was able to propagate from it this year, so hopefully there will be lots of scion wood available soon.
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When we visited Norway in 2001, I was surprised to see so many tropical fruits in their markets. Still kicking myself for not buying some Passiflora ligularis. I did get to taste some awesome, local plums, though.Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
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Wow, that’s really interesting to hear – I wonder if there’s a large population of people in Norway who are immigrants from SE Asia or other tropical areas.
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Great work, Craig! I’m not really a fan of loquats, but this looks like it could be different. It’s hard to get anything from Florida to texas. I’ve been trying for years to get a limequat, to no avail. Last month I was in a local nursery on a Sunday afternoon, and there they were, limequats! They were a little overpriced for their size, in 5 gallon pots, but healthy. I grabbed one. At checkout I made much of it. “I don’t even want to know how you got this here”, I quipped.
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I’m glad you finally got a limequat tree. Have you tried fruits from improved, named-variety loquats? They’re much better than fruits from average landscape loquat trees.
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I have never eaten a loquat with a name, that I know of. In Yoakum they are a weed tree. Maybe the squirrels plant them. I dug one up from near the water faucet behind the house, carelessly planted it 10 feet away, with nothing to lean on and maybe half it’s root ball, a little over a year ago.
There it thrives.
John-without-symptoms-of-coronavirus-so-far 🙂
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How could I go about obtaining this very nice and cause-worthy scion?
I am currently working to set up exclusive acreage for every available named loquat known. I have most of them and make them available around the world. I’d be more than honored to help this one’s legacy continue.
Feel free to contact me on Facebook. Adam Karsten
/fishtodish
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Hi Adam, what a great project you are working on! I’d love to have this new variety included – I really want to see how it compares to other good named varieties growing under similar conditions. Right now, the original tree is pushing tender new growth, so I’m guessing it’s probably not a good time for taking scionwood. I know winter is a good time for loquat grafting – do you know if it can be done at other times of the year? Can loquat scionwood be gathered whenever a growing tip has hardened off its latest spurt of new growth?
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Yes, it can be grafted year round. In fact, a service I provide is custom cocktails for growers, and shipping them all around.
As for the scion, a woody cutting is just as good as a fresh one. We simply store it under moist conditions until fresh leaf buds emerge and then graft it immediately. Of course, the best cutting is a completed fruiting tip, but I can graft just about any piece of a loquat.
Yours would get included both on our non-trademarked cocktail tree collection derived of backyard grower creations, and then receive its own exclusive tree and planted in its respectable place and labeled with its unique backstory and origination on a outdoor placard for public viewing.
Anyhow, always nice to come across something like this.
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Adam, is the “sales” email address you entered the best way to contact you? Or if there’s another email address that’s best, you can use the contact page on this website to send it to me privately. (I don’t use Facebook much)
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Yes, that is a good email. Works as well as any other contact. Will send you my cell there also.
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Hi! I was looking for somewhere to buy loquats in Florida and I bumped into your blog. I would appreciate it if you could tell me if you know where to find this fruit around Orlando to surprise a friend who loved them when she came to visit Spain some years ago and says she doesn’t find them over there.
Thanks a lot in advance!
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Hi Lara, I don’t know of any particular loquat trees I can direct you to in the Orlando area. But loquat is a very common landscape tree, so if you keep your eyes out I’m sure you’ll see a lot of them. Some loquat trees are done fruiting now (mid April), but some late-cropping trees still have fruits.
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Adam and Florida fruit geek, would you please let me know how I can contact you to get your loquat product?
Thanks. I’m in Phoenix Arizona and provide them afternoon shade.
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I might offer scionwood by mail this winter. If you’ve got grafting skills and suitable rootstocks, that would be a way to get this variety.
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Craig, I would definitely be interested in an Ellen Marker scion! I believe we are “neighbors”, by the way. I live in Orange Lake, six miles south of Micanopy. 🙂
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Hi, just found your page, while looking for other loquat types. When do you think you would have rooted one to sell, or scions? I have a “Gold Nugget”, and local unknown seedling. Still lo no no for an Advance and/ or Premier. I’m in 8B, coastal South Carolina, on an island. (Warmer/ milder than general 8B) .
Thanks,
S.Wing
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I have quite a few fruit on Ellen Marker this year from the bud you gave me in 2019. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks Craig.
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Hi. nice interesting article.. nice fruit.. how can i get a couple of scions to grow ellen Marker on the island of Cyprus. mail me please.
Best regards
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