[ noun ] any of several evergreen shrubs of the genus Arbutus of temperate Europe and America <noun.plant>
Arbutus \Ar"bu*tus\, Arbute \Ar"bute\, n. [L. arbutus, akin to arbor tree.] The strawberry tree, a genus of evergreen shrubs, of the Heath family. It has a berry externally resembling the strawberry; the arbute tree.
{Trailing arbutus} (Bot.), a creeping or trailing plant of the Heath family ({Epig[ae]a repens}), having white or usually rose-colored flowers with a delicate fragrance, growing in small axillary clusters, and appearing early in the spring; in New England known as {mayflower}; -- called also {ground laurel}. --Gray.