Eriobotrya Japonica, the Loquat or Japanese plum, also known as Pipa in China, and Nespola in Italy. Loquats are unusual among fruit trees in that the flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe at any time from early spring to early summer. The flowers are 2 cm (1 in) in diameter, white, with five petals, and produced in stiff panicles (branching cluster of flowers) of three to ten flowers. The flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance. Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3–5 cm (1–2 in) long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, sometimes red-blushed skin. The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to sub acid or acid, depending on the cultivar (cultivated variety). Each fruit contains from one to ten ovules, with three to five being most common. A variable number of the ovules mature into large brown seeds (with different numbers of seeds appearing in each fruit on the same tree, usually between one and four). The fruits are the sweetest when soft and orange. The flavor (aroma) is a mixture of peach, citrus and mild mango. The loquat is originally from China, where related species can be found growing in the wild. The first European record of the species might have been in the 16th century, in Portugal, from where it propagated to other European regions.