Eriobotrya japonica (loquat).

The loquat Eriobotrya japonica is an extremely easy to grow plant in the rose family. The genus name means quite literally, woolly bunch of grapes, in Greek (erio-botrya). I normally get 90-100% germination without doing anything other than dropping the pits into some dirt. Even the pits from unripe fruit seem to always sprout.

Loquats grow all over the Bay Area. If you haven't eaten one, they are quite nice and not too sweet little orangish-yellow fruits (a little bigger than a golf ball). Inside each fruit are 4-5 large glossy seeds. They grow into medium-sized trees and provide good shade with their ample, fuzzy dark green leaves.

These two seedlings sprouted about 6 months ago. I found some smushed loquats in the gutter a couple of blocks from my apartment. As usual I made the mistake of planting all 14 seeds, which generated 14 seedlings that I had to thin out (that normally makes me sad, but I'm getting used to it). Despite the ease at which I can get these things to germinate, I've never gotten one to grow in a pot for more than a year without it dying. We'll see how these go.