My quick search yielded this.
"While speaking with Paolo Becker at the 2009 West Coast pipe show he told me that he was experimenting with a new wood that might prove useful in the making of high-quality smoking pipes. This wood, from the Erica family (the same family as briar), is named, in English, Strawberry Tree wood. I quote from Wikipedia: The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) is an evergreen perennial shrub or small tree in the heather family, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe north to western France and Ireland, and south to the Algarve in Portugal. In experimenting with this new wood Paolo found that it greatly resembles briar in structure and taste. In addition the new wood is 20- 25% lighter in weight, due to its more open grain pattern. The culmination of Paolo’s experiment occurred at the 2010 Chicago pipe show when he handed out Strawberry Tree wood pipes to a few individuals in order to secure their opinions concerning taste and durability. The taste results from those chosen were indeed positive, the prevailing feeling being that the taste was at least as good as briar, while the difference in weight was noticeable. While researching what was written about the wood Paolo found that it had been used to make pipes in the past by Italian (and possibly other European) peasants. As homage to this culture he has decided to make a limited number of these pipes available in the near future."
